Pakistan cleric asked to initiate Taliban dialogue process

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Tuesday appointed a senior Islamic cleric, Maulana Samiul Haq, to initiate a dialogue with the Taliban.

Haq met the prime minister and discussed the strategy to revive conditions to initiate peace talks with the Taliban, the Dawn quoted sources as saying.

The cleric is the chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S) and chairman of the Difa-e-Pakistan or Pakistan Defence Council, a coalition of various Pakistani political and religious parties that advocates conservative politics.

During the meeting, the prime minister said talks with the Taliban was the better option and Haq assured Sharif that he would do his utmost to enable the process.

The JUI-S chief told the prime minister that every time the government planned to initiate a dialogue with the militants, foreign powers tried to sabotage the process.

Haq added that the government would have to rethink its policies against terrorism and it would also have to halt the action against militants in North Waziristan.

Haq said drone attacks in the country's tribal areas would have to be stopped in order to revive the conditions for peace talks.

The Pakistani Taliban has refused to talk to the government after a US drone strike killed its chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, in North Waziristan tribal region Nov 1.

Recently, a resolution was adopted by the UN General Assembly against US drone strikes, which called for measures including the use of remotely piloted aircraft, to comply with international law.

This was the first instance of a reference to the issue of drones in a UN resolution.