STAFF REPORT
ISLAMABAD: A meeting to resolve the impasse regarding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was held at the Parliament House in Islamabad between the government and the opposition PTI on Thursday.
According to details, talks between the Imran Khan-led opposition party and members of the ruling coalition began inside Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani’s chamber on Thursday evening and concluded after around an hour.
The negotiations have taken place while a written order is awaited by the Supreme Court regarding elections in Punjab and KP — an issue on which there has been a weeks-long impasse between the ruling coalition, the opposition and the higher judiciary.
PPP’s Yousaf Raza Gilani, who participated in the negotiations from the government’s side, said while speaking to the media that the talks would be resumed today at 3pm, during which the PTI would present their demands. Parties part of the ruling coalition would then be apprised of the PTI’s demands, he added.
Alongside him, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said it had been principally decided that matters would be resolved within the ambit of the Constitution.
Video footage from before the meeting showed PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and party leader Ali Zafar — two of the members included in the PTI’s negotiating team — arriving at Parliament House.
Accompanying them was Faisal Chaudhry, brother of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry who is also part of the PTI’s negotiating committee.
Speaking to the media ahead of the meeting, Qureshi said that there was only “one-point agenda” for the talks, and that was elections.
When a reporter sought clarification on whether he meant early elections, he succinctly replied, “elections”.
In response to another question, he said the PTI’s delegation had Imran Khan’s complete mandate for the talks. “Whether the Pakistan Democratic Movement has the mandate for the talks, this you may ask them.”
Asked whether the PTI was sticking to its stance of the government using the talks as a delaying tactic, Qureshi replied, “This will become apparent by their attitude.
“In the past, their attitude has shown that they are using delaying tactics. Let’s see how their attitude is today,” the ex-foreign minister said. The PTI leader said the purpose of today’s talks was to end uncertainty in the country.
Earlier in the day, Senate Chairman Sanjarani wrote letters to Leader of the House Ishaq Dar and Opposition’s Shahzad Wasim seeking names of members for a “special committee” on “holding political dialogue”.
The development had come a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that “arbitration is not the SC’s job” and the parliament will have the final say regarding the initiation of talks with the PTI.
Subsequently, two senior ministers contacted the Senate chairman and urged him to play his role in bridging the divide.
Meanwhile, PTI’s Waseem replied to Sanjrani’s letter and highlighted that PTI Chairman Imran Khan had already formed a three-member “high powered committee” comprising Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry and Ali Zafar for “meaningful dialogue” on holding elections within the ambit of the Constitution and as per the top court’s orders.
“I would appreciate if you, using your good offices, may communicate to the government that if it’s sincere in dialogue for holding elections, then it should bring its proposals before the August SC during its hearing on the matter” scheduled for yesterday, the letter said. “Otherwise, it will only delay and complicate the matter,” Waseem said.
