LONDON: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said dialogue with Taliban has started and hoped that it would progress within the constitutional framework of Pakistan. He was talking to British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who called on him here on Thursday. `The prime minister apprised Mr Clegg of talks with Taliban, relations with India, energy situation and economic reforms agenda of his government,` says a press release issued by the Pakistan`s High Commission. The Nation, Dawn, The News, Daily Mashriq.
ISLAMABAD: An underfire Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan insisted on Thursday that the government was in contact with the Taliban and would soon start `structured and formal` talks with them in line with a decision taken by an all-party conference on Sept 9. At a meeting with heads of parliamentary parties, Mr Khan, however, could only confirm off-the-record communication with the militants, suggesting the government has nothing concrete on the issue of talks to share. Dawn, Daily Mashriq.
LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has issued a warning that his party will block the Nato supply line if the US made any drone strike to disrupt the talks process with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government will hold direct talks with the TTP if the federal government fails to hold a result-oriented dialogue,” he said while addressing a press conference at the Punjab Assembly on Thursday. The News, The Nation.
PESHAWAR: At a time when Pakistan has been raising the CIA-operated drone attacks on its territory on every world forum, US drone early Thursday fired two missiles that hit a mini-truck in Miranshah, the headquarters of volatile North Waziristan tribal region. There were conflicting reports about the casualties. Some local residents in Miranshah said the drone fired two missiles and hit a mini-truck and killed three people. The News.
PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Home and Tribal Affairs department along with the police have chalked out a comprehensive security plan for the month of Muharram. Peshawar, Hangu, Kohat and DI Khan were declared ‘most sensitive areas’. Checkpoints will also be established on all routes leading to Peshawar from FR Peshawar, FR Kohat and Khyber Agency. The Express Tribune.
BAJAUR AGENCY: The federal government has increased the compensation amount from Rs0.5 million to Rs3 million to the families of the slain levy forces under the “Shuhada Package”. This was said by MNA from Bajaur Agency Shahbuddin Khan on Thursday.
The MNA said that initially the heirs of 50 slain levy personnel from Bajaur would get the compensation from November. The Express Tribune.
KHAR: Three persons were injured in a blast in Mamond tehsil of Bajaur Agency on Thursday, officials said. They said that an explosive device, planted on the rooftop of a showroom owned by a pro-government tribal elder, went off with a big bang in Tharkhoo area. Three persons received injuries in the blast, they said, adding the injured were shifted to agency headquarters hospital for treatment. No group claimed responsibility for the blast. Dawn. The Express Tribune.
KHAR: The unidentified armed persons shot dead a man in Khar on Thursday. Officials said that Mohammad Said, a resident of district Mardan living with his family in Bajaur for the last several years, was on his way home when unidentified assailants opened firing on him. He was injured in the attack. He was taken to the agency headquarters hospital where he succumbed to his wounds. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: The Fata Secretariat is understood to be in contact with the Taliban through a tribal jirga for early removal of the ban on polio vaccination in North Waziristan Agency. The officials said vaccinatorshad no access to25 percent of the 1.1 million children targeted in Fata. They said they were hopeful that sense would prevail and the Taliban would allow vaccinators to administer polio drops to children. Dawn.
GHALANAI: The education department of Mohmand Agency on Thursday stopped the salaries of eight primary school teachers on dereliction of duty and also issued transfer orders of four teachers on disciplinary grounds. Agency education officer Said Mohammad Khan paid surprise visits to 13 schools in Khwezai tehsil and found eight teachers absent from duty in these schools at Khwezai area. The education officer on the recommendations of the AAEO (assistant agency education officer) stopped the salaries of eight teachers and warned them that they should make themselves regular in performing their duty. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Engineer Shaukatullah Thursday took serious note of lack of specialist doctors at agency headquarters hospitals in Fata. The governor took keen interest in ratio of the population getting benefit from the programme and also desired that special measures were also required to promote awareness among the people both in respect of precautionary measures and the state of the available healthcare facilities. APP Dawn.
