Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
cautiously signaled that the government may be ready to engage the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) in peace talks.
Malik said that the government would respond to the Pak Taliban's offer of peace talks within two to three days.
The interior minister's statement comes a day after TTP front man Ehsnaullah Ehsan, appearing in a video interview, had announced the banned cut-thoat outfit's conditions for peace talks with the government.
The Pak Taliban called for three top politicians of the country -- Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz ( PML-N) chief
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
, Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
(JI) leader Syed Munawar Hasan, and the chief of the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)
Maulana Fazlur RehmanDeobandi holy man, known as
Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
-- to act as guarantors for negotiations for stopping the armed conflict in the country's tribal areas.
Speaking to news hounds on Monday after examining security arrangements for an opposition march in Islamabad, the interior minister said he had earlier stated that the government was ready for talks, to which the Taliban had responded by putting forward the conditions of having Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Syed Munawar Hasan as guarantors.
Malik said it would be better if they announced a team of negotiators, adding that peace talks were a positive sign, and that bullets were "not the answer." The interior minister said that the Pak Taliban should specify who they want to negotiate with.
"You tell us what team you would like to talk to, and let's set an agenda," he said.
Speaking to news hounds earlier on Monday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman had welcomed the TTP's "positive" demands of making Sharif, Hasan and himself guarantor for holding peace talks with the government. The JUI-F chief had recommended using the platform of FATA's grand jirga for peace negotiations with the outlaws.
Malik said that the PML-N chief had refused to act a guarantor. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
Malik said that he was so far unable to speak to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and that he would contact him soon on the matter.