Gen Bajwa proposed ‘resettlement’ talks with TTP, not PTI: Shireen Mazari

By Nadir Baloch

ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister for Human rights Shireen Mazari said on Sunday that the Pakistan Tehreeek-e-Insaf (PTI) government never clinched a deal with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to resettle their fighters in tribal areas.

Talking to the media in Islamabad after attending an event, Mazari said that in 2021, former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa proposed negotiating a deal with the TTP during a cabinet meeting attended by former ISI chief Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed, elected representatives of tribal areas and cabinet members.

She was responding to a question about an earlier statement by Inter-Services Public Relations’ director general, who accused former prime minister Imran Khan of holding talking with the banned TTP.

She said that during the cabinet meeting, a committee compring members of tribal areas and Swat was formed to look into the the feasibility of resettlement of the TTP men.

She said that the army was fully on board on the issue of talks with the TTP but the committee could not make progress on the issue owing to the dismissal of the PTI government.

She emphatically denied that the PTI government had struck a deal with the TTP for the resettlement of the militants in tribal areas.

A day earlier, Opposition Leader in National Assembly Omar Ayub said that negotiations with banned TTP were “proposed and advocated” by Gen Qamar Bajwa during a National Security Committee (NSC).

Speaking at a presser in Islamabad, Ayub said: “It was not Imran Khan but General Bajwa, who suggested that every issue could be resolved through dialogue with the TTP.”

“The issue of holding talks with TTP was discussed at the NSC meeting that talks should be held with the TTP. This was not PTI’s decision, but Gen Bajwa’s decision, who had advocated for it.”

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In January 2023, former prime minister Imran Khan had said that his government had planned to resettle banned TTP militants in Pakistan’s tribal districts with the help of the Afghan Taliban, but the scheme hit a snag due to the non-cooperation of provinces.

Speaking at a seminar, in the federal capital, organised by the Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa government on terrorism, Khan had said that his government had planned to relocate at least 5,000 TTP militants and their families consisting of 35,000, but the plan did not materialise as provinces refused to cooperate.

Khan said that initially, Sindh and Balochistan refused to allocate 3 per cent of the NFC share for the uplift of tribal districts, and the federal government withdrew its cooperation after the PTI government’s ouster.

Khan had said that the rise of the Afghan Taliban to power had provided Pakistan with a golden opportunity to deal with the TTP threat. “The Afghan Taliban pressurised the TTP, which had over 5,000 fighters among its 40,000-strong group, to go back to Pakistan and we took a number of steps to deal with it,” he had said.

Khan said that there was an anti-merger group in tribal areas and the PTI wanted to launch uplift projects to satisfy the anti-merger group, but the lack of funds didn’t lead to anything significant in this regard.