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Peace
conference lends support to military operation
Daud Khattak
PESHAWAR: Lending support to the
anti-Taliban operation in Malakand division, political leaders,
intellectuals, writers, human rights activists and representatives
of the civil society asked for a quick end to the action.
“The operation must be precise,
targeted and wrapped up in the earliest possible time,” said a joint
declaration released at the conclusion of the one-day Peace
Conference organised by the freshly-founded Amn Tehreek or Peace
Movement at the Nishtar Hall here on Saturday.
The declaration also demanded of the
government to spend all the incoming international aid on the
welfare and rehabilitation of the IDPs.
Majority of the participants were
from the troubled districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat, now living
in rented houses in cities, with host families or in tented villages
set up by the provincial government in Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda,
Nowshera and Peshawar.
Besides local leaders and
politicians, the seminar was also addressed by Chairperson of the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Asma Jehangir and its
secretary general I A Rehman.
Asma Jehangir, Chairperson of the
HRCP, lamented the role of some elements who gave medals of
patriotism to Taliban at one time and dub them terrorists at
another. She said both the army and the politicians were equally
responsible for the present state of affairs.
She was skeptical about the change in
policy despite a full-scale operation against Taliban. “Although a
military operation is underway, there is no plan what next and how
and when to rehabilitate the displaced people, which shows there is
no policy change,” she added.
I A Rehman, Abdul Latif Afridi,
former president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, social
activist and educationist Ziauddin Yousafzai Mukhtar Bacha, Khadim
Hussain, Gul Rahman, Nasir Khan, Tariq Afghan and Ijaz Ahmad Durrani
also spoke on the occasion.
The News :Sunday, May 24, 2009 |
