ISLAMABAD:
The PTI and the government’s negotiating teams are expected to meet on Wednesday (after the former’s possible meeting with Imran Khan in Adiala Jail) for the third round of ongoing talks between the two sides to end a long-standing political crisis.
According to sources, amid a stalemate for which the two sides blamed each other, President Sadiq held a telephone conversation on Saturday with NA opposition leader Omar Ayub and former NA president Asad Qaiser, in response to a text message sent by Ayub.
During this communication, members of the PTI negotiation team complained that they are not allowed to meet party founder Imran Khan, a crucial meeting before future talks with the government.
In response, President Ayaz Sadiq reiterated his stance that organizing such meetings was not his responsibility in the past nor is it now. However, he assured them that he would make efforts to facilitate a meeting between the negotiating team and the PTI founder. They said Sadiq later contacted the government to arrange a meeting of the PTI negotiating team with the PTI founder in jail.
Sources claimed that the meeting would likely take place within the next two days, allowing the third round of negotiations between the government coalition and PTI teams to continue on Wednesday. During this round, the PTI team is expected to submit its demands in writing.
Before this development, Ayaz Sadiq said in a statement that it was not his responsibility to organize a meeting between jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party’s negotiation committee.
“My job is to facilitate talks between the government and the PTI only,” he said.
While he shifted the burden to the ruling coalition, he said the government and its allies would have to decide whether a meeting could take place or not, and said he was willing to accommodate any request.
On the delay in convening the third meeting between the two parties, Sadiq said that neither the opposition nor the government has contacted him to convene a meeting of the negotiating committees yet.
Sadiq said: “The government and its allies must decide whether the meeting can take place or not,” adding “when the parties agree, I am willing to call a meeting one or two days in advance.”
He also suggested that PTI leaders could directly communicate with government representatives, including Prime Minister’s Political Affairs Advisor Rana Sanaullah, about the delay in the meeting.
In the previous meeting between both sides on January 2, the PTI had asked for more time with a commitment to present its charter of demands in the third round, provided it was granted access to jailed party founder Imran Khan.
As of Friday, the party’s negotiating committee was not allowed to meet Imran, forcing him not only to question the government’s authority to hold meaningful talks.
PTI leaders said the government had promised to organize a meeting between the party committee and its founder but had not yet facilitated the same, which had stalled progress in finalizing the letter of demands.
Even before the speaker’s suggestion of having direct contact, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram had conveyed that the PTI does not talk directly to the government, adding that the party contacts the president’s office and then the office of the president talks to the government.
“The facilitation comes from the president’s office; we do not deal directly with the government on these matters,” Akram had told The Express PAkGazette a few days ago.
Stating that the issue was raised in the meeting with the government, Akram said the party also approached the spokesperson’s office but was told that there was no response yet to the meeting with Imran.
The speaker later regretted the PTI leaders’ statement and stated that it was not their mandate or responsibility to organize a meeting between the negotiation team and Imran Khan.
The meeting between Imran Khan and the PTI negotiation committee has become a sticking point as the party’s negotiation team is yet to be allowed to have unsupervised interaction with Imran.
This failure has led PTI leaders to say that there will be no progress in the next meeting if the committee is not allowed to meet the party founder before the next round of talks.
Talks between the PTI and the government began on December 23 with an aim to resolve the thorny issues between the two sides, but things are yet to go beyond the optical.
Both sides have met twice so far, but neither the PTI has submitted its demands in writing nor the government has been able to arrange a meeting between the PTI committee and Imran Khan.
The initial delay in filing the claims was attributed to PTI’s strategy to see the outcome of the judgment in the £190 million corruption case against Khan and others, including his wife.
The court decision was scheduled for January 6 but was later delayed to January 13, leaving PTI to say that talks will continue even if Imran Khan is found guilty in the case.
After the January 2 meeting, the PTI began questioning the government’s authority to hold talks when it did not open the doors of Adiala jail for a meeting.
PTI leader Shoaib Shaheen quoted Imran Khan as saying that PTI should hold talks directly with powerful stakeholders as they have the real power.
Shaheen questioned why the government started the talks process if it had no power and said the delay in allowing a meeting between Imran Khan and the party’s political leadership was enough to show the government’s sincerity in the talks.
In a video statement released under his official name X on Saturday, Asad Qaiser accused PML-N leaders Maryam Nawaz and Khawaja Asif of trying to sabotage the negotiation process.
“We are an oppressed party. We were persecuted [and] “Bullets were fired at our people,” he said, lamenting that the embattled party was blamed for trying to undermine the talks despite being on the receiving end of “arrogance.”
