MULTAN
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that recent meeting between Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and PTI chairman Imran Khan has eased pressure from the premier for army operation against Taliban.
Talking to the journalists here on Saturday, he added that PTI and government’s stance on terrorism issue was almost similar that the solution to problems like terrorism could be found through talks. He declared that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would extend all out support and assistance to the federal government for holding talks.
He said that neither was his party supporter of Taliban in the past nor it favoured them today, though it wanted restoration of peace in the country.
“The PTI’s mission is just the mission of peace,” he added. Citing examples, he said that over 200 big operations were launched in Fata and other areas but no success was achieved. “It is for the first time that Taliban have disassociated themselves from suicide attacks besides declaring ceasefire. It’s a positive progress,” he asserted.
He claimed that 80 percent Taliban groups were in favour of talks while just 20 percent opposed the idea and wanted to spread chaos in the country through terrorism. “Let’s bring these 80 percent to the talks table. The country and its economy cannot afford terrorism anymore,” he warned. To a query, he said that the enemies of Pakistan supplied arms and money to the terrorists to destabilize the country.
He anticipated that the atmosphere in Afghanistan was fast changing because of pull out of foreign forces and coming elections. “We need to evolve a multi-dimension policy to change a typical mindset through talks that is currently working against Pakistan,” he added.  He strongly condemned police baton charge on nurses and demanded immediate arrest of police officials involved in it.