ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to “immediately take the national political leadership into confidence on the state of dialogue with the militants and the nature of the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan and its authorisation”.

“It is equally important to give political ownership to any military action being contemplated as our brave soldiers continue to be martyred while the government maintains an inexplicable distance and silence on the prevailing state of affairs,” he said in a statement on Saturday.

Mr Khan expressed his “serious concerns” over recent military strikes in the region and termed it “a clear beginning of a full-fledged military operation in the NWA”.

The core committee of the PTI, after receiving a briefing from the party’s nominee in the talks with militants, had urged the government to resume the peace process and make efforts to end a deadlock.

The PTI chairman said it was the prime minister’s responsibility to ensure that civilians were evacuated as had been done in Swat before a military operation. Instead, he alleged, reports were already coming in from North Waziristan about civilian casualties as people were caught in the middle of aerial bombings and helicopter gunship attacks.

The prime minister, he said, had a “unanimous national political mandate” to carry out dialogue for peace and he had failed to inform the nation and its leaders about the status of the dialogue and authorisation of the operation.

Mr Khan said this showed callousness on the part of the government towards the people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas who were citizens of the country.

He said that already there were almost two million displaced people who were living in bad conditions and had almost been forgotten by the state.

The PPP and other parties have also urged the prime minister to inform the nation and the parliament as to why the government had to resort to aerial bombings in North Waziristan when the talks process had not been officially suspended.

The Awami National Party and the Balochistan National Party have urged the government to convene an in-camera session of parliament to brief the legislators on the status of the talks and the reasons for launching the military operation.

The PTI chief said the dialogue with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had resulted in a sharp decline in terrorism, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the main tribes in Waziristan had also fully supported the talks and the ceasefire.

“That is why it is incomprehensible why the talks would be undermined at this stage or why the political leadership would be kept in the dark by the government on the actual status of the talks and the operations.”

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014