Islamabad:
In the midst of the changing positions of the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) in the conversations with the coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday to avoid dialogue was a non -democratic attitude that damaged the national unity.
The prime minister said that communication and dialogue between political parties were the soul of democracy, and added that these communications helped develop a common strategy to solve the problems faced by the country and the nation.
The Prime Minister’s statement came immediately after the decision of the PTI to initially boycott the negotiations and then link them to the announcement of the Alliance declared two separate judicial commissions to investigate the incidents of May 9, 2023 and November 26, 2024 .
He also arrived at a time when PTI’s leadership has already announced that he would not attend the fourth round of conversations scheduled to celebrate on January 28 (today), if his demands were not accepted. The government has not yet accepted any of the demands of the PTI, including the release of political prisoners.
“Avoiding dialogue reflects an antidemocratic attitude, encourages an atmosphere of tension and damages the spirit of national unity,” said Shehbaz at a meeting with the spokesman for the Government’s negotiation committee, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, in the prime minister’s office .
Shehbaz emphasized that Pakistan required reconciliation and harmony instead of chaos, confrontation and conflict. He stressed the importance of adopting a unified strategy to address critical issues, such as the reconstruction of the national economy and eradicating terrorism.
The prime minister also declared that the country was progressing and that his global stature was improving. “No one will be allowed to hinder this development and progress trip through antidemocratic practices,” said Shehbaz.
Senator Siddiqui had asked the prime minister to inform him about the negotiations held with the PTI committee, so far. The Government and the opposition have held three rounds of conversations, so far, including their unavailable couples on December 23, 2024.
The first two meetings could not go beyond the optics, but at the third meeting, the PTI finally appeared in the letter of demands to the government. The PTI negotiation committee filed the lawsuits only after its meeting with the PTI Invancing Imran Khan founder in the Adiala prison.
PTI’s letter included two main demands: the formation of two judicial commissions; and “support” of federal and provincial governments on bail, suspensions of sentences and absolute “political prisoners” identified by the PTI.
PTI’s letter had declared that the demands were presented as a “previous requirement for broader negotiations regarding the restoration of the Constitution, the rule of law, respect for the people’s mandate and the free and fair elections.”
However, seven days after the third round, the founder of PTI abruptly canceled the dialogue, with the argument that the government had not accepted its demands within a week. Siddiqui, however, had called the unilateral decision to boycott the “unfortunate” conversations.
Siddiqui had said that the PTI himself had agreed in the joint declaration issued after the third meeting that the Government would respond to its demands within “seven business days.” He had subsequently urged the PTI to review his decision.
A day after announcing the end of the conversations, the president of the PTI, the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, deviated from his previous statement and said that Imran Khan had put the talk on hold, and added that the PTI could reflect on the resumption of the conversations only if the government constituted the judicial commissions.
Despite the announcement of PTI del Boicot, the president of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, summoned a meeting of the negotiation committees on January 28 (today) at 11:45 am at the House of Parliament. Siddiqui had told the media that the government’s response would appear at the meeting.
For his part, President Ayaz Sadiq, who is the main figure in these conversations, telephoned the head of the PTI negotiation committee, Omar Ayub, and invited him to the meeting with the government side on Tuesday (today).
In his conversation, the speaker emphasized that dialogue was the only viable solution to solve all problems, emphasizing the importance of finding common land in contentious issues through table conversations and negotiations.
Ayub expressed concern about the use of the government to delay tactics to address the demands of the PTI. He insisted that negotiations could not proceed without the formation of judicial commissions, which remained a critical demand of the PTI.
When commenting on these developments, the spokesman of the Government Committee, Senator Siddiqui, told a private news channel that the government would also dissolve its negotiation committee if the PTI did not attend the next meeting.
Currently, both parties emphasize the importance of dialogue, but simultaneously remain firm in their respective previous conditions; resulting in a stagnation. The president of the PTI, Barrimer, Gohar, repeated on Monday that they would not participate in the conversations and that the decision had been officially transmitted.
