ISLAMABAD: Days after an in-camera session of parliament attended by the top military leadership blamed the previous government for the rise in militancy, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday tried to shift the blame for the rehabilitation of the TTP militants in tribal districts to all political parties.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr Qureshi rejected an impression that the militants were rehabilitated because of the PTI regime and the then-military leaders.

“When Taliban were eager to return to Pakistan from Afghanistan, it was decided to bring them into the mainstream and for that some conditions were set: they will have to obey the Constitution, will give up arms and live in peace within their specified areas,” he explained.

“Those who are raising objections [today] they also attended the briefing [held during the PTI regime],” he said while alluding to the ruling coalition and the incumbent military leadership.

After the briefing, it was decided to give a go-ahead to chalk out a strategy in this regard. However, the PTI government was removed and the coalition government which succeeded the PTI was resp­onsible for the current crisis, he added.

He pointed out that there was a significant decline in terrorism during the PTI rule but incidents of terrorism have increased during the past year.

PTI leader says all political parties agreed on policy to rehabilitate TTP

Sources privy to the meeting revealed that the military leadership, while giving a briefing to members of parliament a couple of days ago, also blamed the PTI regime and the then-army leadership for the rise in militancy.

During the meeting, Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir cited several verses from the Holy Quran to say that it was a mistake to rehabilitate militants in tribal districts.

He was of the view that in line with the teachings of Islam, a grand operation was conducted against militants but later these militants were allowed to return. Resultantly, the country was facing an upsurge in militancy.

A source said the army chief termed the Constitution as “supreme” and said the survival of everyone was dependent on its true implementation. He had said that he felt proud sitting in parliament.

The source quoted the COAS as saying that after the Golden Jubilee Celeb­rations of the Constitution, which took place last week, he went to different formations of the army and urged the personnel to give due respect to the Constitution.

Another source — who had attended both meetings during PTI’s regime and the one held last week — told Dawn that nobody had expressed reservations over the plans to resettle the militants in tribal districts, except for PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

The PPP chairman had questioned how the Taliban could be rehabilitated and what guarantees that they will remain confined to their designated areas, the source revealed.

He said that “all of us could only clap on whatever was briefed to us in that meeting as well as the recent meeting”.

Some of the participants of the meeting also suggested that minutes of the in-camera meeting should be made public to dent the PTI narrative.

For the first time, the NA speaker sat in his own chair on the dais instead of sitting beside the army chief and the prime minister on the floor of the house. This move was hailed by the leader of the opposition, Raja Riaz, who lauded the speaker for “upholding the prestige of parliament”.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2023