Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Senator Rana Sanaullah on Sunday reiterated his party’s offer to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for talks, emphasising that democracy thrives through dialogue.
Speaking to the media in Faisalabad after casting his vote in the by-elections, he assailed jailed PTI founder Imran Khan, who “never engaged in politics”.
The PML-N leader recalled that Khan, during his tenure as the prime minister, refused to talk to anyone.
“Democracy advances through dialogue, but they [PTI] created a deadlock,” he said.
His comments came just a day after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi assured the PML-N-led federal government of his support for the “sake of peace” in the country.
In a statement, Afridi said that no meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) had taken place since his election as the KP chief minister.
“I will attend a meeting of the National Security Committee,” the KP CM said, adding that he would participate in any meetings convened by the Centre to “speak up” for the rights of the province.
Meanwhile, Sanaullah — while recalling Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer to the PTI for talks on the Charter of Democracy during and after the PTI’s government in the Centre — said that his party was still in favour of sitting with politicians to resolve issues.
He lamented that the PTI founder was “solely focused” on filing cases against the opposition leaders, rather than engaging them in dialogue.
The PML-N leader asserted that his party would emerge victorious in the by-elections, stating that “the public will support the PML-N”.
On the voter turnout for the by-elections, Sanaullah said that the figure usually remains between 25% and 30% in the by-polls.
The PML-N leader stated that the by-elections were conducted in a peaceful manner, saying “no one was arrested or stopped anywhere in the entire constituency”.
“Development projects were stopped due to the election. The planning for the development project has already been done,” he added.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) held by-elections in six National Assembly constituencies — NA-18 (Haripur), NA-96 (Faisalabad), NA-104 (Faisalabad), NA-129 (Lahore), NA-143 (Sahiwal) and NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan).
Polling was also held in seven Punjab Assembly constituencies, PP-73 (Sargodha), PP-87 (Mianwali), PP-98 (Faisalabad), PP-115 (Faisalabad), PP-116 (Faisalabad), PP-203 (Sahiwal) and PP-269 (Muzaffargarh). –Agencies
