PPP concerned over Waziristan peace deal

11 Sep, 2006

Pakistan Peoples Party has expressed reservations about the treaty reached on September 5 by the government with the militants in the tribal areas.
In a statement issued on Saturday.
A spokesperson of the Party said that the government had claimed to launch the military operation to stop the Taliban and al Qaeda from operating from its soil where they had converged following the 2001 Afghan war.
He said that the regime kept changing its policy towards the tribal areas recalling an earlier cease-fire, which failed to deliver after the murder of Nek Muhammad with whom an agreement had been reached.
By signing the peace treaty the regime has signalled that it was unable to help Kabul stabilise because it was unable to control the militants despite placing 80,000 troops in the tribal areas", he said.
He said that it was alarming that the Taliban have regrouped and gained in strength virtually enforcing their writ in the tribal areas, carrying out punishments, policing the area and now forcing a peace treaty through which their confiscated arms and vehicles were to be returned to them.
He said that in stark contrast to the olive branch being extended to the militants, the nationalists in Balochistan were facing the brunt of state force as were the political forces whose leaders, including former speaker Yusuf Reza Gillani and Javed Hashmi continued to be imprisoned and party leaders exiled.
He said that the unity of the country was being strained at two borders simultaneously.

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