LAHORE, Feb 9: Former finance minister Dr Mubashir Hasan wants PML-N President Nawaz Sharif to take steps to facilitate talks between the Taliban and the government.

“If he can take the Jamaat-i-Isalmi and Maulana Fazal with him in taking such an initiative the better it would be. On its own the government at Islamabad is not likely to take the kind of initiative Nawaz Sharif has advised it to take,” he said in a statement here on Saturday.

According to him, loss of face of the government, American advice and other obstacles stood in the way.

“After all the Taliban have killed military officers and men and destroyed property on a very large scale. Apparently the government is doing what it considers is the right thing to do and is not seeking peace.”

Dr Hasan said if the Taliban really wished to seek peace, it was for them to take the initiative. But fortunately, the Taliban had clearly taken an initiative of sorts when they said they would talk with Pakistan if Nawaz Sharif, Jamaat-i-Islami and Maulana Fazalur Rehman would stand “guarantee”.

“It is incumbent upon Mian Sahib that he should speak to the Taliban to find out the nature of the ‘guarantee’ the Taliban are seeking and then discuss it with the government to get the process of pace making started. Is it not in the interest of PML-N that killings cease and peace dawns? Nawaz Sharif’s advice to the government that it should talk to the Taliban and the Taliban’s announcement that it would talk to the government if Mian Sahib guarantees proves beyond any reasonable doubt that there is no friction of any kind between the Taliban on the one hand and Nawaz Sharif along with the two political parties named by Taliban on the other. Indeed, there is consonance, even a degree of harmony, between the Taliban and the three Pakistani political parties they have named,” he said.

Dr Hasan said in the situation created by the statements of the Taliban and of Nawaz Sharif and keeping in mind the phase of horrific death and destruction Pakistan was passing through, Nawaz would be failing in his duty to Pakistan if he did not rise to the occasion to do whatever he could to stop bloodshed and lawlessness in the country. “That may even get him more votes,” he concluded.