ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Salman Akram Raja on Tuesday questioned the credibility of talks with the government, saying any negotiations are meaningless without access to the party’s founder, Imran Khan, media reported.
Speaking to the media, Salman Akram Raja said Mahmood Khan Achakzai had clearly stated that holding talks while denying meetings with Imran Khan was illogical. “You cannot bar us from meeting our leader and then ask us to come and negotiate. That makes no sense,” he remarked.
Raja said both PTI and Achakzai shared the same stance that no meaningful negotiations were possible without meetings with the party founder, Imran Khan. “If meetings with the PTI founder are restored, only then can there be a serious and constructive discussion,” he said.
Referring to earlier engagements, Raja recalled that talks were held in December 2024 and January 2025, but yielded no results. “There was no progress in those negotiations, apart from eating biscuits,” he said, criticising the government’s seriousness.
He added that if the government was sincere about dialogue, it should facilitate meetings with Imran Khan. Raja stressed that there was no pressure from PTI on Achakzai, calling the demand for meetings a “natural and legitimate” one.
Salman Akram Raja further accused the government of stripping basic human rights while claiming to pursue talks. “When the right to meet is taken away and fundamental human rights are violated, we see no sincerity in negotiations,” he said.
Rejecting the use of the word “begging” in the context of talks, Raja said PTI was standing on principles and would not compromise them. “We are not asking for favours. We are standing by our principles, and we will not run away from them,” he said.
He also questioned the legal basis for Imran Khan’s confinement, asking under which principles he had been placed in solitary conditions. “Sitting at the negotiating table without meeting our leader would mean accepting this coercion,” Raja concluded. –Agencies
