Jailed former PM Imran Khan's PTI rejects government's offer to resume talks

Islamabad: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership rejected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer to resume stalled talks with the government through a parliamentary panel to lower the country's political temperature.

Shehbaz addressed a cabinet meeting on Thursday and said the government was ready to form a parliamentary committee to advance talks with PTI after the Imran Khan-founded party quit negotiations over the non-formation of a judicial commission to probe the events of May 9, 2023, and November 26, 2024, according to Geo News.

The offer came after the PTI abruptly quit the talks after holding three meetings with the ruling parties’ negotiation committee, maintaining the government failed to constitute judicial commissions within the seven-day deadline in line with its “charter of demands”.

Speaking on the Geo News programme Capital Talk, PTI top leader and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan said: “We reject Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer [to resume dialogue]”.

Reiterating the party’s demands, Ayub said the PTI formed a negotiation committee with sincerity to hold dialogue with the government. “Our demands were clear,” he said, calling for the release of PTI's all “political prisoners”.

In a statement, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, the government’s negotiation committee spokesperson, said the PTI exhibited a non-democratic and non-political mentality by unilaterally withdrawing from the talks.

“PTI lost a good opportunity towards [fulfilment] of their demands,” he added.

Although the opposition party “missed this train”, they should benefit from the PM’s latest offer, Siddiqui said.

Slamming the PTI for its agitational politics, the PML-N senator said that neither the opposition party achieved its objective via sit-ins and long marches in the past nor will it this time.

Stressing the need for dialogue to defuse political tensions in the country, Siddiqui said the solution to every problem was serious and meaningful negotiations.

“The sooner PTI understands this, the better it will be for them,” he added. The much-hyped negotiations between the government and Imran Khan's PTI hit a snag last week after the opposition walked out of negotiations following instructions from the jailed party founder.

The opposition also skipped the fourth round of meetings planned on Tuesday, saying the decision to quit talks could only be reviewed following the formation of judicial commissions, seeking probes into May 9, 2023, and November 26, 2024, events as well as the release of "political prisoners".