ISLAMABAD // Negotiators for Pakistan’s government and Taliban representatives gathered in Islamabad for a preliminary meeting on Thursday to chart a “road map” for future discussions, amid deep scepticism over whether dialogue can yield a lasting peace deal.
Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif initiated the talks to end violence that has killed thousands over the last six years in the Tehreek-e-Taliban’s campaign to topple the government and enforce their harsher brand of Islam across the country.
After four hours of talks on Thursday, the two sides issues a joint statement urging all parties to respect the peace process.
“It is necessary for the success of the talks that all activities against peace and security should be ended,” the Taliban delegate, Maulana Samiul Haq, told a news conference.
Mr Haq also called for a peace deal to be concluded in “a short period”.
Mr Sharif announced last month that his government wanted to pursue negotiations and named a four-member government team led by Irfan Sadiqui, a journalist and an adviser to the prime minister. Also on the government was another journalist, a former spymaster and an ex-diplomat.
The Taliban negotiators are not actually from the group itself, although Taliban spokesmen claim they have the militants’ full confidence.
In addition to Haq, the Taliban negotiators include Maulana Abdul Aziz, a cleric at the famed Red Mosque in Islamabad where government forces killed scores of militants in a 2007 military operation. The third member on the Taliban team is Mohammed Ibrahim, the head of the hard-line Jamaat-e-Islami party in northwestern Pakistan.
Initially, the Taliban also wanted ex-cricketer Imran Khan to represent them in talks with the government. But though he welcomed the peace process, Khan turned down the request, saying the Taliban should hold direct talks with Pakistan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of several militant factions, has waged a campaign since 2007, killing thousands of people in gun and bomb attacks across the country.
The peace initiative got off to a chaotic start earlier this week.
The talks were originally to be held Tuesday but were postponed after the government negotiators sought “clarification” about the identities of the Taliban’s negotiating team. The request angered prominent Mr Haq, a pro-Taliban cleric and the leader of the Taliban team, who accused Islamabad of not taking the peace offer from the group seriously.
But the dispute was subsequently resolved, and state-run Pakistan Television showed negotiators from the two sides exchanging smiles as Thursday’s meeting got under way in the capital, Islamabad.
Underlining the fragile security situation, a suicide bomber, killed eight people in a sectarian attack against minority Shiites in the north-west city of Peshawar on Tuesday, just hours after the abortive start to the talks.
The main Taliban spokesman denied that his organisation was behind the blast but a commander for the group in Peshawar said his men were responsible, saying no ceasefire had been announced.
Stability in Pakistan is seen as important to neighbouring Afghanistan, where US-led Nato troops are pulling out after more than a decade of war.
Washington has said it is watching the talks closely. It has long been pushing Pakistan to take action against militants using the tribal areas as a base to attack Nato forces across the border.
Observers generally hold out scant hopes for the talks, saying there appears to be little common ground for progress between the two sides, and warning of what the government might be forced to concede.
One of the Taliban’s negotiating team, Maulana Abdul Aziz, said on Wednesday that there was no chance of peace unless the government agreed to the militants’ demand for Sharia to be imposed throughout Pakistan.
The government has insisted that Pakistan’s constitution must remain paramount. Given the gulf between the two sides, there has been scepticism about what the talks could achieve. Local peace deals with the militants in the past have quickly fallen apart.
Government efforts to start peace talks last year came to an abrupt halt in November with the killing of the Taliban leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a US drone strike.
Mr Sharif’s announcement last week that he wanted to give peace talks another try caught many observers by surprise.
The start of the year has produced a surge in militant violence, with more than 110 people killed, and an air force bombardment of TTP hideouts in North Waziristan fuelled speculation that a major military offensive was imminent.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press