PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has lashed out at government efforts to offer an amnesty to elements within the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group. He took to Twitter to call such an offer a “unilateral decision” and condemn it as an “insult to the victims of terrorism.”
The unilateral decision to offer amnesty to terrorist groups within Pakistan is an insult to the thousands of victims of terrorism. Imran’s policy of appeasement to religious fascism within Pakistan as well as on our eastern & western borders will haunt us in-times to come.
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) September 17, 2021
Earlier, President Dr. Arif Alvi had said the government can consider an amnesty for members of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) who are “not involved in crimes” and want to leave the ideology of the TTP and follow the Constitution of Pakistan. Soon after this, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had reiterated the government’s willingness to pardon members of the banned TTP if they assure the state of respecting the Constitution.
For its part, the TTP issued a statement rejecting the government’s offer of amnesty, insisting that the group was proud of its role in the ongoing conflict with the state, and that it would negotiate only if this led to the establishment of what it calls a Shariah-based Islamic system in the country.
