950811

Khan says reply

to Dehlavi's

letter on 13th

KARACHI: Federal Law Minister and leader of the government's team negotiating with Altaf group Prof. N D Khan has said that he would send reply to the letter written to him by his counterpart leader of the Altaf group negotiating team on August 13.

He said the delay in sending reply to Ajmal Dehlavi's letter had only been due to holidays.

Talking to newsmen on Friday, N D Khan said that he had gone to Nawabshah and he received Dehlavi's letter on Wednesday evening. He said that since he had received information about the letter, he had called, Afaq Shahid, the third member of his team as well from Islamabad after which his team had a meeting on Wednesday and went through the contents of the letter and also prepared a draft reply to the same.

He said he will be leaving for Islamabad on Saturday and discuss the draft at the higher level and then send the reply at the most by August 13.

Prof N D Khan said that our priority is the establishment of peace in Karachi and it is not only the government's but a responsibility of all of us.

The law minister was confident that a solution to the issue will soon be found out. He pointed out that the one point agenda to which both sides had agreed to, related to establishment of peace in Karachi first and settlement of other issues later under a peaceful atmosphere.

He hoped that the dialogue will be resumed after a few days and come up to the expectations pinned by people in us. "We want an end to the atmosphere of terrorism in Karachi and return of its past glories."

Prof Khan said the government is trying to restore the confidence of people and extricate them from the feeling of fear. He said the people should rest assured that government will provide security to their life and property.

The law minister said that with the establishment of peace here, large scale investment will start pouring in and 3 lakh people would get jobs just within a year whereas one lakh people will get employment in six months only.-APP