Pakistani government and Taliban begin tentative negotiations

Representatives of both sides emerge smiling after three hours of discussions in Islamabad

The Guardian, Jon Boone in Islamabad, Thursday 6 February 2014

The Pakistani government negotiator Irfan Siddiqui and Sami-ul Haq, who
led the Taliban delegation. Photograph: Sajjad Ali Qureshi/Demotix/Corbis

Representatives of the Pakistani Taliban and the government they are fighting sat down together for three hours in Islamabad on Thursday, a first tentative step towards peace talks.

There was little concrete progress expected or made in the discussions, but the negotiators emerged smiling, with a joint statement and a list of government demands which the Taliban representatives say they will take to insurgent leaders in the country's north-west.

Both sides also agreed "there should be no activity by either side which can potentially harm the peace efforts", in a conflict that has now dragged on for more than seven years, and claimed thousands of lives. They gave no more detail on what that statement might mean for war-weary ordinary Pakistanis, however.

The process got off to a slow start after the four-man government team pulled out of the first planned meeting on Tuesday, saying they needed more "clarification" on the Taliban delegation.

The insurgents originally asked Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician, to join their committee, but he declined. In the end the Taliban delegation was led by the cleric Sami-ul Haq, sometimes known as the "father of the Taliban" for his role training Afghan fighters in the 1990s.

Many analysts warn that the talks-about-talks, which aim to lay out a "roadmap" towards substantive peace negotiations, have little chance of success. They argue past attempts have served mostly to allow militants to boost funding, manpower or strategy, and say the current discussion has put abrupt and convenient brakes on an emerging consensus for strikes against the insurgency.

The prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, had been doggedly pursuing efforts to engage the insurgents in negotiations since he took office in June, but until these discussions had failed to make any headway.

A rash of devastating Taliban attacks, particularly on military targets, had hardened the political mood and raised expectations the government would move to a war footing.

Just last week Sharif had been widely expected to announce military operations, particularly in North Waziristan, an area bordering Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban and other al-Qaida-linked groups.

But at the last minute he switched instead to plans for the peace roadmap, and the Taliban moved swiftly to name intermediaries who could speak on their behalf.

"The opinion in the country had changed. People were ready for [military action]," said Tahir Ashrafi, a moderate cleric who says he was also asked to join the Taliban committee. "This committee has changed everything and it will give the Taliban a lot of time to regroup."

There is still a yawning gulf between the government and insurgents on some basic points, not least of which is who they should be talking to.

Islamabad has requested a meeting with the insurgency's leadership, rather than a delegation of sympathisers. Sharif also wants all talks to be held within the framework of the constitution, which the militants have rejected, and to limit their scope to areas currently "affected by violence", while insurgents have made clear they want to change legal and government systems across the country.

Still, there is a great appetite for peace in Pakistan after years of brutal fighting, and both the Taliban and government teams declared the meeting had gone well.

Irfan Siddiqui, an aide to Sharif and chief negotiator on the government's side, said the Taliban side "responded beyond our expectations".

"They have heard our reservations and told us their reservations with an open heart," he told journalists on Thursday evening.

The Taliban negotiator Haq said the next round of talks would take place after he had talked to leaders of the banned organisation who currently operate out of hiding.