Dawn.com |
Irfan Sadozai
December 23, 2024
The first meeting between committees representing the government and the opposition PTI took place on Monday, kicking off long-anticipated talks between the rival parties to defuse prevailing political tensions.
Earlier this month, former premier and PTI founder Imran Khan
announced his party’s committee for talks with “anyone”.
Subsequently, following the recommendation of National Assembly (NA) Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday
formed a committee comprising ruling coalition members.
Today’s in-camera meeting was chaired by the NA speaker. According to Sadiq, the next meeting was proposed for January 2, where the opposition would present its “charter of demands”.
Of the nine members of the government committee, seven attended the talks, including all three PML-N leaders — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, PM’s political aide Rana Sanaullah and Senator Irfan Siddiqui.
Others present included PPP’s Raja Parvez Ashraf and Naveed Qamar, and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) leader Aleem Khan, also the privatisation minister.
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader and Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain, and Balochistan Awami Party’s Sardar Khalid Magsi — members of coalition parties who were named as part of the committee — were not in attendance. While Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was named as part of the committee, MNA Farooq Sattar attended from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan instead.
Meanwhile, on the PTI’s side, three opposition lawmakers attended the meeting — namely PTI MNA Asad Qaiser, Sunni Ittehad Council Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza, and Senator Raja Nasir Abbas of the Majlis Wehdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM).
The PTI’s committee formed earlier this month also included Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja.
However, according to a
statement by the NA Secretariat released last night, Sadiq had said the meeting would comprise the “government’s and opposition’s members of the National Assembly”.
Interestingly, Defence Minister
Khawaja Asif, who has remained a permanent feature in past government committees for political dialogues, is not part of the group this time.
Following the meeting, the NA speaker expressed the hope that if everyone joined their heads together and worked for Pakistan’s betterment, the country would see “improvement in democracy and the challenges faced by Pakistan would be eased”.
He stressed that it would be better if the speculations on the outcome of the meeting were kept to a minimum.
Speaking to reporters, Qaiser said that they had kept their demands forward for the release of their party leaders, including Imran, and the formation of a judicial commission comprising the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.
He said that since all of the party leadership was unavailable for the meeting today, they had decided to form a charter of demand to present it in the meeting on Jan 2.
Qaiser said that they had also demanded the resumption of their communication with the incarcerated PTI founder, adding that the government, while accepting their demands, has assured them of arranging their meetings with Imran.
“Let us see when the meeting [with Imran] is arranged,” he added. He said that the “actual negotiation” would start next month and today’s meeting was an “initial” discussion.
Addressing the meeting, Sadiq hailed both sides’ decision to form committees to discuss the problems faced by the country, adding that he had recommended the premier to form the committee on Gohar’s request.
“I am grateful to all of you […] for forming a committee without delay. I think the seriousness of the negotiation is evident from the seniority of the leadership that is present,” Sadiq said.
“I hope that we will talk about Pakistan’s benefit,” he said, adding that the solution to every problem was in negotiations.
Prior to today’s meeting, the government committee met with Sadiq separately. Speaking to reporters earlier, the NA speaker said, “My job is to facilitate the meeting and both sides will decide themselves.
“Talks are the only solution in a democracy,” he noted, stressing that the country’s economic prosperity depended on political stability.