“I am ready, wholeheartedly, to advance this dialogue so that the country moves forward,” says premier

Ansar M Bhatti

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Thursday the government was ready to form a parliamentary committee to advance talks with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a couple of days after the latter quit negotiations with the government.

The PTI abruptly quit the talks after three meetings, arguing that the government was not genuinely interested in addressing its demands — the release of “political prisoners” as well as the formation of judicial commissions on events of May 9, 2023, and November 24-27, 2024.

The dialogue process between the PML-N-led government and the PTI  commenced in late December after months of heightened political tensions — as the former ruling party had taken to the streets on numerous occasions.

With the failure of talks, the PTI has now announced staging public gatherings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swabi and Punjab’s Lahore on February 8, marking the first anniversary of the general elections, which the party claims were rigged.

However, PM Shehbaz has said that he wishes to tone down the political tensions and wholeheartedly move forward with the negotiations as the country cannot sustain more damage.

Addressing a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad, the PM said the government accepted the PTI’s offer for talks very genuinely, contrary to the claim of the leading opposition party.

“A committee was constituted and with the facilitation of the speaker, talks began. They provided their demands in writing and then our committee said that they would also respond in writing. The next meeting was scheduled to take place on January 28, but they made a run for it,” he added.

He said the government committee members told the PTI leaders that since they had provided the demands in writing, they would do the same.

The premier mentioned that the government’s committee members told their PTI counterparts that they should hold a meeting with them and they would speak to them on these issues.

“Was it not the case that when we entered the parliament wearing black armbands [in 2018], PTI’s Imran Niazi told me that [his government] would form a parliamentary committee and that I should nominate members from the opposition benches,” he said, reminding the former ruling party founder of their dealing with the opposition during their tenure.

To date, he said, only one or two meetings had been held of that committee, asking the PTI leaders for introspection.

“They offered a house committee and we accepted it. The 2018 house committee should conduct its probe and so should the committee that will be formed to probe the 2024 general elections.

Similarly, the parliamentary committees should probe the November 26 as well as 2014 protest events. It takes two to tango.”

Shehbaz said he was ready, wholeheartedly and with good intentions, to advance the dialogue so that the country moved forward. “The country could not sustain more damage,” he added.