ISLAMABAD, Feb 4: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Monday that the government was ready to hold peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban.

The comments follow statements by the Taliban leaders who have indicated they are ready to sit down at the negotiating table.

“We are ready to start talks with you,” Mr Malik told reporters, adding that bullets were “not the answer”.

“You tell us what team you would like to talk to, and let’s set an agenda,” Mr Malik said.

Ruling PPP lawmakers say one key issue driving the government towards talks is concern about violence in the run-up to elections expected in a few months. The lawmakers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

The military has waged an aggressive campaign against the Taliban in their northwest sanctuaries along the Afghan border since 2009, but the militants have proved resilient. There has been an uptick in violence in recent months as the Taliban have carried out a series of high-profile attacks, including two against air force bases.

It is less clear what is motivating the Taliban to push for negotiations. The militants have publicly spurned government offers of talks in the past and have denied reports that the group has held secret discussions with officials.

It is also uncertain how much common ground the two sides would find if they met face-to-face. The Taliban have demanded that Pakistan sever ties with the United States and enforce Islamic law in the country.

Brig Asad Munir, former head of an intelligence agency in the northwest, said he thought the talks were destined to fail and that the only solution was an operation in the Taliban’s remaining sanctuary in North Waziristan.

“It is not possible for any state to accept their conditions,” Brig Munir said.

Even if an agreement is reached, it’s unclear if it would last, especially given divisions among the militants themselves.

The government has cut peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban in the past, but they have largely fallen apart. The agreements have been criticised for allowing the militants to regroup and rebuild their strength to resume fighting the government and foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The recent momentum towards peace talks began with a letter the Pakistani Taliban sent to a local newspaper at the end of December outlining conditions for a ceasefire, including the imposition of Islamic law and a break with Washington.

The most vocal proponents for negotiations with the Taliban on the government side have been members of the Awami National Party, which controls Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has been repeatedly attacked by the militants. Those calls increased in December when a suicide bomber killed Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial cabinet.

“Talks with the Taliban are necessary for lasting peace,” KP Information Minister and ANP lawmaker Mian Iftikhar Hussain said last month.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said on Sunday that the group had responded positively to the government’s offer of negotiations but was worried that officials weren’t serious.

He told reporters that the Taliban wanted three prominent politicians to “guarantee” the talks. The politicians included PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and JI Amir Syed Munawar Hasan.

The government has asked Maulana Fazl to act as a mediator in talks with the Taliban, said ruling party officials. The JUI-F leader said he was willing to do so as long as the government gave him total authority.

Taliban spokesman Ahsan also demanded release of some militants.—AP