World Bulletin/News Desk

The National Assembly heard on Monday the government virtually shelving, for now, its plan to revive a disrupted peace effort with Taliban, ending a heated six-day debate without even endorsing a previous mandate in this regard given by an all-party conference, the Dawn reported. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that no dialogue could make headway until the United States stopped drone strikes at suspected militant hideouts in the tribal belt.

According to Dawn News, Khan repeated his argument that the dialogue process initiated by the government had been 'sabotaged' after Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike. He said he had told leaders of parliamentary parties earlier in the day that “we have to review the situation for the next three to four weeks” before deciding what to do next.

Although he assured the house that “we have to pick up the pieces” in the face of what he called “broken paths”, he spoke of no remedy for drone attacks, the report says.

“There can be no headway in the next few days,” he said, referring to a “strong reaction from the other side” and the appointment of a new hard-line Taliban leader, Mullah Fazlullah. He added: “It takes two hands to clap and not when there is talk of ‘dialogue, dialogue’ from this side and ‘refusal, refusal’ from there.”

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman called for continuing peace efforts and making new approaches to Taliban ranks to break the present deadlock, the report adds.