ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government on Friday welcomed a cease-fire extension by the Pakistani Taliban, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said, after two days of talks with a delegation of Pakistani tribal elders hosted by the Afghan Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban — known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or the TTP — are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who took over Kabul last August as US and NATO troops withdrew.
The group said on Thursday it had indefinitely extended the cease-fire, previously announced until May 30, with the government in Islamabad. The development followed talks between the TTP and a 50-member Pakistani delegation in Afghanistan.
On Friday, Aurangzeb told reporters negotiations with the TTP began in October 2021 and they were being facilitated by the Afghan government.
“It has civilian representation of the government and the military representation,” the minister said at a press briefing in Islamabad. “Today, a press release was issued in which they announced a cease-fire and we welcome it on the government level.”
She said the negotiations were taking place under the “constitutional ambit” and they would conclude with the approval of the Pakistani government.
“Whatever decision would be in accordance with the constitution, this committee would conclude it and it would be with the approval of parliament and the government,” Aurangzeb said.
The TTP has been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan over the past 14 years and has long fought for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the country’s former tribal regions.
The group is asking Pakistan to scrap a 2018 law that did away with the semi-independent status of the former tribal regions that dates back to British colonial rule. The law aims to grant equal rights to millions of residents in the restive FATA areas once they were incorporated into Pakistan’s authority as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The TTP also wants Pakistani troops to pull out of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, release all TTP fighters in government custody and revoke all cases against them.