Islamabad: The meeting between the Pakistan government and a Taliban-nominated committee to frame a roadmap for peace talks could take place in a day or two, coordinator for the state`s negotiating team said on Wednesday.
Irfan Siddiqui, an aide of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the coordinator for the government`s committee, said, "We will listen to reservations of the Taliban`s committee pertaining to our powers and will also redress them."
He added they would also apprise them of the reservations of the government`s committee. Siddiqui said they were ready to meet Taliban`s representatives wherever they wanted.
Speaking to Dawn news channel, Siddiqui said that negotiations between the two committees would take place soon.
He, however, added that the time and place for the meeting had not been determined as yet. Initial peace talks failed to take place yesterday after the government delegation refused to meet the militants` negotiators, citing confusion about the make-up of their team.
However, Siddiqui said today that ambiguities regarding TTP negotiating team had now been clarified.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had issued a statement yesterday that their three-member team was final.
The TTP had originally named a five-member team that included Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mohammad Ibrahim, Samiul Haq, JUI-F leader Mufti Kifayatullah, Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan.
However - cricketer-turned-politician Imran and Kifayatullah - declined to join the committee. Siddiqui said that the government negotiators had no objection to the composition of the three-member Taliban team for peace talks.
The statement by the Taliban had said that Haq and his two colleagues had their blessing to go ahead with the negotiations without Khan or Kifayatullah.
"The three-member committee is final now and we have our full confidence in it to hold talks," the banned group`s spokesperson had said.
Asked when the meeting will take place, Haq told reporters, "I will meet with other in the evening and then decide. I might leave for Lahore so will take a decision in the evening".
He said the committee was keen to talk to the government and maintained that they were just a "bridge" between the government and the Taliban.
