ISLAMABAD, June 3: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said his party is no more interested in playing any role in bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table after concluding that the establishment is not in favour of any such process.

The JUI-F’s spokesman, Jan Achakzai, on Monday quoted Maulana Fazl as having said that after the withdrawal of offer for peace talks by the Taliban and because of “disinterest shown by the establishment, there is no opportunity or atmosphere for the negotiations and the JUI-F playing any role in this regard is out of question”.

According to him, the Maulana had information that the establishment had no interest whatsoever in peace talks and reconciliation. “Neither there has been any indication nor has the government approached the JUI-F. In such an environment we have no intention to play any role,” the JUI-F chief said.

He said peace talks and reconciliation were a serious task but it was being conducted in a ‘non-serious’ manner. “So until the new government takes over, all media reports about the JUI-F’s role in peace talks are baseless and should be ignored,” Maulana Fazl said. When asked to explain the term ‘establishment’ used by the JUI-F chief, Mr Achakzai said it meant ‘army’ which, according to him, had been controlling the country’s foreign, security and Fata policies over the past many years.

But the spokesman said the party could review its stance after gauging the attitude of the new government.

Soon after the May 11 elections, the JUI-F and the PML-N had started talks on a power sharing formula and formed committees to finalise it.

Despite having a simple majority in the National Assembly, the PML-N had asked the JUI-F to join its coalition government with the sole purpose of getting the latter’s support in the Senate for carrying out the legislative business smoothly.

The JUI-F had told the PML-N that before agreeing to join the coalition, it wanted the latter to make clear its position on key issues like the militancy in Fata and legislative business on controversial matters.

The two parties had held a number of meetings at the committee level last month, but there have been no contacts between them over the past one week.

The JUI-F had earlier claimed that the two sides had agreed that the talks with the Taliban would be held through a “grand peace jirga”, as suggested by all the mainstream political parties in a “declaration” at the all-party conference (APC) organised by the JUI-F in Islamabad on Feb 28.

It said the PML-N leadership had already endorsed the JUI-F’s viewpoint that “indigenous conflict resolution mechanism” should be adopted for peace in the country.

But the JUI-F now feels that the PML-N is not interested in getting it onboard, particularly after the withdrawal of talks offer by the Taliban because of the killing of their important commander in a drone attack last week.

The JUI-F, which supported the PML-N candidates in elections on Monday for the posts of National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker as a goodwill gesture, has already started weighing the option of sitting in the opposition because of what it called a cold response from the N-League.

Mr Achakzai said Maulana Fazl had convened a meeting of the party’s Majlis-i-Shoora in Islamabad on Tuesday to take a final decision whether it would sit with the treasury or the opposition.

He said the JUI-F had been discussing a power sharing formula with the PML-N at the committee level for the past couple of weeks and the two parties had even reached an understanding on a number of issues, but the N-League now appeared to be reluctant to give the agreement a final shape.

On the other hand, Senator Pervez Rashid, the head of PML-N’s committee negotiating with the JUI-F, said there had been no deadlock. He told Dawn that his party had been busy in finalising its candidates for the posts of speakers and deputy speakers in the national and provincial assemblies and in other issues for the past one week and, therefore, the two committees could not meet. Mr Rashid said the PML-N was thankful to the JUI-F for its support in the elections for the NA speaker and deputy speaker. “We will also respond to this love with love,” he said, adding that Sardar Mahtab Ahmed, a member of the committee, had been in constant touch with JUI-F leaders.