ISLAMABAD: Contrary to what he called `bitter experiences` of the past and a dominant national sentiment for getting tough with Taliban militants, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday gave them `another chance` for peace talks that each side has alternately offered the other.

The gesture came as the prime minister made his first appearance in the National Assembly in more than seven months and followed a new wave of deadly militant attacks this month against both civilians and soldiers and a rare offer for dialogue from the Taliban last week after punitive air strikes on their suspected hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area.

Speculation had been rife in recent days in the media and political circles that the government was about to order a military operation in North Waziristan, the main Taliban bastion, like the one successfully carried out in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the previous PPP-led government.

Even before the prime minister made his speech,some of the ruling PML-N lawmakers, who probably had been briefed about the government`s plans during a meeting with him on Monday, pleaded against showing any mercy to those Taliban who refused to talk with the government or did not recognise the constitution.Mr Sharif too appeared to be taking a hard line in his prepared speech in Urdu by recalling some of the most devastating attacks launched by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan at military and civilian targets. He called them terrorists on the `other side` whose activities `pose dan-gers to Pakistan`s existence`. He declared that `this situation cannot be tolerated any longer` And it was towards the end of the 20-minute text that he toned himself down to offer Taliban `another chance` in response to of their offer for talks and announced forming a disparate four-man committee `to carry the dialogue process forward`. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is its `focal person`although he would have liked to oversee the process.

The prime minister said he knew that `if the state wants to eliminate terrorists, the whole nation will stand behind it. `However, now when the offer for talks has come from the other side, we, by putting aside bitter experiences of thepast, want to give another chance to a peaceful settlement.

But he stressed the necessity of starting the process with `total sincerity` whose first prerequisite, he said, was that `terrorist activities should be ended forthwith.

Dialogue and terrorism cannot go together`.

The prime minister named no one as head of the four-man committee, whose only member representing the federal governmentwould be Irfan Siddiqui, a columnist whom he appointed his special assistant on national affairs only on Monday with the status of a federal minister.

Its other members are Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan and now a ranking member of the opposition Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf (PTI) who the prime minister said had been named by the PTI-led government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Rahimullah Yousufzai, a veteran Peshawarbased journalist; and retired army major Amir Khan, a former intelligence operative once accused of playing a role in the failed so-called `midnight jackal` intelligence operation in 1989 to topple the then PPP government of Benazir Bhutto.

It was not clear whether the government had consulted opposition politicians or its allies before announcing the new move, though both the PPP and PTI the main opposition parties agreed with it and assured support to the prime minister.

Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah of the PPP called for setting a timeframe for the process.

But the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the third largest party on opposition benches but usually supporting the government, rejected the new process. Its parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar called it a `sellout of the blood of martyrs` that he said would buy time for militants to reorganise themselves.

PTI chairman Imran Khan, who has been the main advocate of dialogue from the opposition benches, seemed more pleased with the prime minister`s announcement. He suggested what he called `open dialogue` and got an assurance from the premier for `action` against Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for what the prime minister called an `inappropriate statement` by him that a decision to launch a military operation had been taken and that `operations` would also be mounted in 174 areas in Punjab against Pashtun communities.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the government-allied Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, made it clear that his party was not consulted when he raised unexplained reservations about the formation of the four-member committee. However, he assured his party`s support for the process as a whole.

But before the prime minister`s arrival in the house after a break for Zuhr prayers, Chaudhry Nisar took turns to go to the desks of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and several opposition party leaders. He briefly chatted with them, possibly about the government`s move, but seemed to ignore the opposition leader to whom Mr Sharif personally went later to shake his hand.

Desk-thumping cheers from both sides of the house echoed as the prime minister, dressed in a cream-colour shalwarkameez with a brownish waistcoat, entered the chamber following his unexplained absence from it since last June.

Some female lawmakers of the PPP chanted, with a tinge of sarcasm, `welcome, welcome`.

He tried to be jovial as, in the beginning of his address, he thanked the opposition for what he called remembering him through their token walkout on the opening day of the present session on Monday (to protest against his absence) and assured them he would `not let you get dejected in the future`.

But in remarks later to the points raised by Mr Shah and Mr Khan, the prime minister invited them to sit with him frequently to give their suggestions.

Addressing PTI chief Imran Khan, who has a palatial hilltop house in Islamabad, Mr Sharif said: `You invite me to your home; I will be ready to come.

At a news conference later, adviser Irfan Siddiqui called the four-member committee as an unconventional body, but one that enjoys political support and expressed his hope that the Taliban would respond positively to the prime minister`s move.