The Pakistan Government met the Taliban for the first time yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to end the group's seven-year campaign of terror.
Critics believe that the talks will give the Pakistani Taliban undue legitimacy, but will fail because the militants will refuse to give up fighting unless the Government agrees to free imprisoned militants, withdraw from tribal areas and change its constitution - none of which the country's leaders are prepared to do.
The militants have already won one victory - the United States paused its drone programme to give Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the political space to conduct negotiations.
The head representative of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has conducted a terror campaign in the country since 2007 to topple the Government and establish a Sharia state, read out a joint statement at the end of the meeting in Islamabad.
"The Government team has laid down four basic conditions: that all talks be held within the framework of the constitution, that the scope of the talks should remain confined to areas disturbed by violence and not to the entire country, that all hostilities should cease during talks and that talks should be swift," he said.
