Almost all mainstream political parties and representatives of bar associations will meet here on Thursday at a multi-party conference organised by the Awami National Party to devise a joint strategy to deal with the menace of terrorism.

The deliberations are likely to be dominated by the offer of talks made recently by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.According to the ANP, the conference will be held in camera because of the sensitive nature of the issue.“Of course, the peace talks offer made by the Taliban will be discussed at the conference,” said ANP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Haji Mohammad Adeel.

Talking to Dawn, he said the main objective of the conference was to devise a national policy that could bring about peace in the country. He said the ANP would go into the conference with an open mind and expected the country’s political leadership to come up with some consensus decisions and strategy to deal with terrorism that had severely affected national economy and caused huge losses to human lives.He said the ANP did not want to impose its policies or viewpoints on others, but it was ready for dialogue and also for a military operation, if needed, for the sake of peace.

Mr Adeel said all major parties, including the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, JUI-F and the MQM, had accepted the invitation to attend the conference. He regretted that the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf had declined to participate in the event for some reasonsAccording to him, while the JI refused to attend the conference, the PTI leadership even declined to meet the ANP delegation which wanted a meeting to extend the invitation.

He said they had requested the JI to review its decision.Replying to a question, the ANP leader said he could not confirm the names of the participants, but expected Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Raja Zafarul Haq, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Mehmood Khan Achakzai of the Pakhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao to attend the important event.

The conference is considered significant because it is being held only two weeks after TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had expressed willingness to hold conditional talks with the government.The TTP spokesman had declared that if PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and JI Amir Syed Munawwar Hasan acted as guarantors for the talks, they would be willing to hold negotiations in the best interest of the country.PML-