ISLAMABAD: Chief of Awami National Party (ANP) Asfandyar Wali Khan on Thursday called for concerted efforts to find out a solution to menace of terrorism which he said was a national issue, Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported.
In his address to the inaugural session of the All Parties Conference (APC) organized by ANP to develop a consensus-based strategy to cope with the extremism in the country on Thursday, Khan said that instead of ignoring the menace there was a need to find a solution to the issue as it was haunting entire nation.
Delegations from the PML-N JUI-F, JUP, Pakhtunkhwa MAP, BNP-A, ST, PML-F Hazara Democratic Party, lawyers’ bodies and parliamentarians from FATA attended the first session of the all parties conference (APC).
ANP leader Senator Zahid Khan said that government allied parties would attend the second session of the APC.
Asfandyar Wali Khan further said that the elections were round the corner but the issue of terrorism was not going to end with the polls. He said governments would keep coming and going but “We should put up efforts to protect future of the nation”.
The ANP chief said a joint communiqué would be released in light of the suggestions presented by the participants of the APC.
The APC would draft recommendations to tackle the problem of terrorism in the country which would be forwarded to the President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
The APC comes two weeks after TTP, which waged a deadly campaign inside Pakistan, offered it was ready to hold talks with the government if Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Syed Munawar Hasan acted as guarantors.
Taking to media on Wednesday, ANP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Haji Mohammad Adeel had said the TTP’s talks offer would also be discussed at the meeting.
DND
