Non-negotiating Taliban to be singled out: draft security policy

ISLAMABAD: The draft of the internal security policy was presented during Monday’s federal cabinet session chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

According to the draft, local Taliban groups who are against peace talks will be isolated. Sources informed Geo News that there was no mention of ‘negotiations’ with the Taliban in the draft.

The draft policy also proposes that after identification of foreign Taliban militants their respective governments will be contacted for their deportation.

In the draft policy, it also suggested that the intelligence agencies would track the communication network.

The draft was presented to cabinet members for perusal with a note saying ‘read-only’ and they were not allowed to take notes or take it away.

During the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan was facing a serious security situation and to address the extraordinary situation, extraordinary measures were needed.

Prime Minister Sharif also referred to the All Parties Conference (APC) and said its decisions were endorsed by all the political parties. He said the APC also endorsed the stance that economy and security of Pakistan would not be played upon for gaining political mileage and most of the political parties had shown maturity in this regard.

A number of developments have taken place thereafter and the government is closely following them, the Prime Minister said and added, “We will keep political parties informed of these developments and take them into confidence.”

The Prime Minister said cross border illegal movement at the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan needed to be curbed. He directed the Interior Ministry officials to take up this matter with their Afghan counterparts and evolve a joint mechanism / strategy.

“We would do whatever possible to restore peace, alleviate poverty and put the country on the road to progress, we have to establish rule of law and create a society based on equality, justice and mutual respect,” Prime Minister Sharif said.

“We are not going to compromise on this at all,” he added.

The meeting strongly condemned the blasts in Rawalpindi and Bannu.