Pak govt's talks effort with Taliban bound to fail: ANP leader

The Pakistan government's effort to pursue a dialogue with the Taliban was "flawed" and bound to fail, a top leader of the secular-leaning Awami National Party today said.
ANP Vice President Bushra Gohar, on a visit to India to attend a conference, said a "policy shift" was required rather than deciding on talks or military operations against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
"Dialogue is an ongoing process, it is not an end in itself. This (dialogue) committee was formed and when the names were announced, we were concerned because they were known Taliban apologists or supporters," Gohar told reporters here.
"So we started saying that the Taliban talking to the Taliban. It was a flawed process and it was bound to fail. In my personal view, unless we go for a policy shift whether we go for talks or for operations it would be meaningless and I do not see a policy shift whether it is our security policy or our foreign policy," she said.

The ANP has been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban for speaking out against militancy and some 700 of its workers and dozens of leaders have been killed in attacks by the banned militant group. The party was unable to campaign during last year's general elections due to Taliban threats.
The Pakistan government suspended a fragile peace process with the TTP last week after a Taliban faction executed 23 troops taken hostage in 2010. After the talks were put on hold, combat jets and helicopter gunships targeted militant hideouts in the restive northwest, killing nearly 100 militants.

The TTP has been waging a bloody insurgency that killed some 40,000 people since 2007.

Gohar also took a swipe at Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, referring to him as a "cricket hero" who is known as "Taliban Khan".
"You have not seen the beard that he carries in his stomach and so this was a thought-out plan. He was allowed by the Taliban because he became the Taliban spokesperson and he was always delivering a script," she claimed.