LAHORE, May 22: The Pakistan People’s Party thinks the PML-N and the army will have to be on the same page on the issue of dealing with the Taliban.

“The Taliban seems to be more comfortable with the PML-N leadership. It appeared that all wanted dialogue with the Taliban,” PPP information secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira told a group of journalists here on Wednesday.

Mr Kaira was of the view that the Taliban had never been comfortable with the PPP. “The Taliban never asked for talks with the PPP government as they were more comfortable with the party now going to form government,” he said.

When asked would it be easy for the army to negotiate with different factions of the Taliban as the country had lost over 40,000 lives in the war against terror, Mr Kaira said: “The PML-N and the army will have to be on the same page on the Taliban’s issue eventually.”

PML-N president and prime minister in-waiting Nawaz Sharif had said the Taliban’s offer of talks should be considered “seriously” as it was the “best available option.”

On the other hand, army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had observed that in the elections, people of Pakistan not only courageously withstood the threat of terrorism, they also defied unfounded dictates of “an insignificant and misguided minority.”

Mr Kaira thinks that holding talks with the extremists will be another daunting task, along with overcoming energy crisis, the Nawaz government will have to undertake after coming to power (next month).

Flanked by Usman Salim Malik, Mr Kaira said Nawaz Sharif gave no deadline for ending loadshedding in his May 20 speech that showed he had realised how difficult it was to deal with the challenges the country was facing.

He did not agree to the analysis that the PPP had lost political ground to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. “The PML-N and PTI are right wing parties and the PPP has its own vote bank and it will reemerge,” he said.

He said the party would thoroughly analyse the factors behind its defeat and move forward.