ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Friday said the military would be blamed if the government's talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) end in failure, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader said he opposed the inclusion of military representatives in the new government committee.

Shah said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's statement implying that judge Rafaqat Ahmed Khan Awan died as a result of panic firing by his own bodyguard was irresponsible and unfortunate.

On Thursday, Nisar had told the National Assembly that the guard had confessed to police that three bullets fired by him in panic from a 9mm pistol after an attacker’s suicide bomb blast near the court room killed the judge — one of 12 fatalities in one of the capital’s worst terrorist carnage in recent years that also wounded 28 people.

Shah said on Friday that the interior minister was calling terrorists as patriots, adding that such statements would drive the opposition to take on an offensive posture.

"We want democracy to sustain...but that should not be regarded as a weakness on our part," Shah said, adding that the opposition was being criticised as too friendly and not critical enough.