‘Pakistan open to pardoning banned TTP’: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in an interview with The Independent has said that the government would be “open to giving” a pardon to members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) if they promise not to get involved in terrorism and follow the Constitution of Pakistan.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi Interview with The Independent (British online newspaper) on the Situation in Afghanistan #APPNews #Afghanistan @ForeignOfficePk https://t.co/ABfA5bXbAz

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Qureshi said Pakistan was concerned about the reports of TTP figures being released from prisons in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

“If those guys come and start creating problems for us over here, it will affect innocent lives and we don’t want that,” he said while referring to the TTP.

Qureshi added, “If [the TTP] are willing to mend fences and not take the law into their hands and not get involved in terrorist activities and they submit and surrender to the writ of the government and the Constitution of Pakistan, we are even open to giving them a pardon.”

“But as long as they do not come and start undertaking terrorist activities [in Pakistan]. That is our concern,” the minister stressed.

The minister’s comments come days after President Arif Alvi while speaking on Dawn News programme, ‘Khabar se Khabar’, said, if anyone wants to leave the ideology of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and work as per the Constitution of Pakistan, the government may consider a general amnesty.