Nawaz directs govt negotiators to continue peace efforts

Published March 4, 2014
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. – File Photo
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. – File Photo
- File photo
- File photo

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said durable and permanent peace was top priority of the government for which all out efforts would be continued.

He stated this while speaking to members of government's negotiating committee who called on him at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad.

The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and committee members, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui, Major (retd) Mohammad Amir, Rustum Shah Mohmand and Rahimullah Yusufzai.

Earlier, a meeting of the government negotiating committee was held. The committee reviewed Pakistani Taliban's ceasefire announcement and sorrowful acts in Khyber Agency and the federal capital.

The committee termed that continuation of such kinds of incidents would damage the negotiating process for maintaining peace.

Members of the committee presented the premier their proposals for an effective future strategy.

The meeting came a day after a gun and bomb attack on the district courts in the heart of Islamabad left 11 people, including a district and sessions judge, dead.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) dissociated itself from Monday’s attack which was later claimed by Ahrarul Hind, a lesser-known splinter group of the TTP. The group had recently parted ways with the TTP over holding of talks with the government.

On Monday, Prime Minister Sharif also meet with Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and top national security aides and military officials to discuss the future of the dialogue process.

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