KARACHI: Prof Mohammad Ibrahim, a member of the Taliban negotiation team, is optimistic about the outcome of talks between the government and the TTP leadership and expressed the hope that direct talks would start in a day or two and take the peace process forward.

Addressing the Tahafuz-i-Pakistan convention organised by Jamaat-i-Islami to commemorate the Pakistan Day at Nishtar Park here, he said a breakthrough in talks would herald an era of peace in the country.

He warned the elements who wanted the government to go for an army operation against the militants and said the nation was yet to overcome severe consequences of the army operation carried out in Wana. Fata, Bajaur, Hangu and South Waziristan in which thousands of people lost their lives and millions were displaced. These sacrifices and sufferings failed to get the desired results and displaced persons, including women and children, were still suffering in camps.

He said Pakistan was established to let people live in accordance with Islamic injunctions with the enforcement of a system based on Quran and Sunnah, because peace and prosperity were the ultimate blessings of the Islamic system.

“Our forefathers promised Allah Almighty to obey His rulings in the state of Pakistan, but our leaders betrayed and disobeyed the oath and as a result the state was torn into two parts.”Talking about efforts to restore durable peace in the country, he said that in September last year the government developed a national consensus through a resolution supported by all political parties to open dialogue with the militants.He said just before the dialogue process could be initiated the United States sabotaged the peace efforts through a drone attack.

Recalling the army operation in Wana and Fata by the Musharraf regime, he said there were only a few hundred miscreants who could have been subdued within days but after a decade “we are still facing terrorism and the strength of militants has multiplied and after-effects of that operation continue to haunt the country”.

Another army operation would displace millions more and intensify terrorism, he added.

He urged the government to implement the Islamic clauses of the Constitution and promised to persuade the Taliban to agree on all other issues.