Peace talks start between Pakistan, Taliban team Thursday Feb 06,2014

Peace talks between the Pakistani government and representatives of the Taliban began on Thursday Feb 06,2014 after a short delay, the first test for the government's controversial initiative of seeking a peaceful resolution to the country's bloody insurgency

A 3-member committee consisting of  -

• Professor Ibrahim Khan
• Maulana Sami-ul-Haq and
• Maulana Abdul Aziz

was appointed by Pakistani Taliban to hold peace talks with Pakistan.The Taliban negotiators are not actually from the group itself, although Taliban spokesmen claim they have the militants' full confidence.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced last month that his government wanted to pursue negotiations and named a 4-member team led by Irfan Sadiqui, a journalist and an adviser to the prime minister which incluedes -

• Rustam Shah Mohmand,a former ambassador to Afghanistan
• Amir Shah, a former military intelligence official and

The talks were originally to be held Tuesday Feb 04,2014but were postponed after the government negotiators sought "clarification" about the identities of the Taliban's negotiating team. The request angered prominent pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Samiul Haq, the leader of the Taliban team, who accused Islamabad of not taking the peace offer from the group seriously
But the dispute was subsequently resolved, and state-run Pakistan Television showed negotiators from the two sides exchanging smiles as Thursday's meeting got underway in Islamabad.

After four hours of talks, the two sides issues a joint statement Thursday, saying both sides had called for avoiding any steps that could disrupt the peace process.
"It is necessary for the success of the talks that all activities against peace and security should be ended,"