Islamabad, Sep 9 (IANS) Pakistan’s ruling and opposition parties Monday were unanimous in supporting dialogue with the Taliban militants to end the bloodshed in the country.
“We repose full confidence in efforts of the prime minister for peaceful solution to problems and call upon the federal government to initiate the dialogue with all stakeholders forthwith and for this purpose,” Xinhua reported citing a resolution of the All Parties Conference convened by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif here.
The meet sought suggestions from the mainstream political and religious parties to devise a policy of national security, including talks with the Taliban.
Pakistani Taliban welcomed the announcement. Taliban spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid said the group’s central council will soon meet to give response to the government’s offer.
The resolution issued after the daylong deliberations also strongly condemned the US drone strikes in the country’s tribal regions and said these attacks cause civilian deaths.
“We are unanimous that the use of drones is not only a continued violation of our territorial integrity but also detrimental to our resolve and efforts of eliminating extremism and terrorism from our country.”
The political parties urged the government to consider the possibility of taking the drone issue to the United Nation as such attacks violated international law.
“We declare that we shall ourselves determine the means and mode of fighting this war in our national interest and shall not be guided by the United States of America or any other country in this regard.”
“Thousands of precious lives of innocent men, women and children and defence and security personnel have been lost in the war, the illegal and immoral U.S. drone attacks and the blow-back from actions of NATO/ISAF forces in Afghanistan,” the resolution said.
“There have also been colossal damages to social and physical infrastructure and huge consequential financial losses and adverse effects on our economy,” it added.
Army chief General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani and intelligence head Lt. General Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi also attended the conference and briefed the participants about the overall security situation in the country.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his remarks stated that dialogue with the militants should be given priority as the country has suffered a lot with the killing of over 40,000 people and huge financial losses due to terrorism.
