PESHAWAR, Nov 17: The United States has approached a former parliamentarian known for his contacts with Islamic militants to serve as a bridge between Washington, the Taliban and their Arab comrades, a source close to the former MNA Javed Ibrahim Paracha said.

Mr Paracha confirmed his meeting with Karen Hughes, US Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the State Department, and US military officials at Islamabad’s Serena Hotel last Friday but declined to give details.

He said he would reveal details of what had transpired at the meeting in a couple of days.

Following his meeting with US officials, he had put in a request to see Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt-Gen Muhammad Hamid Khan, to discuss the US proposition, he said. The meeting took place on Thursday.

He said that he shared with Gen Hamid details of his meeting with the United States officials and was now awaiting a response from the federal government.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Army in Peshawar confirmed Mr Paracha’s meeting with the corps commander but sought to play down its importance, saying the former MNA was among the several visitors to the Corps Headquarters.

“It was a general call-on day and he was one of the many who had requested for and had a meeting with the corps commander,” the spokesman said.

He did not volunteer to say anything further about the subject matter of the meeting.

The Americans, however, denied Ms Hughes’ meeting with the former PML-N parliamentarian from Kohat.

“No meeting with local politicians from that region took place at all. There was nothing in the schedule that would suggest such a meeting. I cannot confirm this,” Peter Kovach, spokesman at the US embassy in Islamabad told Dawn from Islamabad.

An angry Paracha confronted with the US denial shot back and said he would name the other US officials present at the meeting and reveal details of the talks in a couple of days.

The former MNA, however, said that the visiting Americans also had a separate meeting with former director-general of ISI, Gen Hamid Gul.

The source close to Mr Paracha said the US team basically asked him to serve as a bridge between them, the Taliban and other Arab militants fighting an insurgency against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

“The Americans wanted Mr Paracha to talk to the Taliban and possibly the Arabs in Afghanistan to stop suicide bombings,” the source said.

He said the Americans told the ex-parliamentarian that they had tried former Taliban foreign minister Wakeel Ahmad Mutawakil and former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdus Salam Zaeef, to talk to their former colleagues.

But the Taliban spurned the US overture due to their lack of trust in their former colleagues, the source said.

“The Americans said they then forwarded Mr Paracha’s name as a contact person and the Taliban agreed,” the source claimed.

The ex-MNA’s claim of US officials could not be independently verified.

The former MNA, who is a lawyer by profession, shot to prominence when he filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court to challenge the extradition of over 100 Al Qaeda militants caught inside Pakistan while fleeing Tora Bora in Afghanistan soon after the ouster of the Taliban.