By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the party of jailed former premier Imran Khan ended their first day of talks on Friday without agreement, with the two sides due to meet again on Saturday afternoon ahead of the party’s planned march on Islamabad the following day.
The negotiations, chaired by the National Assembly speaker, Ayaz Sadiq, were meant to defuse a political crisis that has deepened over the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s plan to march on the capital on 4 October to demand Khan’s release. Officials said the next round would start at 2pm in the speaker’s chamber, and that PTI would formally put its demands to the government’s negotiators then.
Sadiq told the delegations he was “only playing the role of a mediator”. He said his office was always open to dialogue and that “positions and offices were temporary”. Parliament, he said, was the only forum where solutions could be found.
The government side was led by the interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, and the prime minister’s political affairs adviser, Rana Sanaullah. It also included the federal minister Amir Muqam, the junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry and the parliamentary affairs minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a partner in the ruling coalition, was represented by Senator Sherry Rehman and the MPs Naveed Qamar and Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani.
Facing them were the PTI chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, the Senate opposition leader, Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, and the former speaker Asad Qaiser. The PTI general secretary, Salman Akram Raja, and Amir Dogar completed the team.
The PTI delegation was reconstituted at short notice. Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who heads the opposition alliance Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan, declined to attend and said he would join talks only at a neutral venue. Sources said the party leadership rejected his demand and went ahead without him. Sanaullah took aim at that stance before the talks began. “You can sit by the roadside under a tree and talk,” he said, “but you cannot meet at the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Neither side disclosed the substance of the talks, and Chaudhry said the delegations had agreed not to do so. Gohar said the first session lasted about an hour and was held in a good atmosphere. He denied reports that harsh words had been exchanged. “The positive thing is that the talks are continuing,” he said.
Local media accounts citing unnamed sources painted a harder picture. Samaa TV reported that the government team said permission for a march on Islamabad would not be granted under any circumstances, formally asked PTI to withdraw the call, and treated Khan’s release as outside the scope of the talks. The broadcaster also reported a heated exchange between Sanaullah and Abbas over court rulings and restrictions on visits to Khan, before the speaker urged restraint. The IP has not been able to verify those accounts independently, and Gohar’s description of the atmosphere differs from them.
Naqvi opened the discussions with a briefing on law and order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the north-western province governed by PTI, where militant violence has worsened.
Sanaullah said afterwards that no decision could be reached in the first round and that he could not comment on progress. Earlier in the day he had urged PTI to withdraw its march call, saying long marches and disorder were no solution and that matters before the courts must be settled by the courts. He said Khan, held at Adiala jail, had been taken to hospital and examined by a panel of senior doctors, and that the government would comply with any further clear court directions.
PTI said its position had not changed. “Our long march will definitely take place,” Gohar said, adding that negotiations and the march would proceed in parallel and that there was “no room” for governor’s rule or an emergency in the province. Abbas, speaking during a break, said the march call would remain “intact” until a solution was found and that the outcome depended on the government’s intentions. “If the government cares about the political crisis, then it should sit with the opposition with integrity,” he said.
Raja and Qaiser said the party wanted access to Khan at Adiala to settle its agenda with him, and that the treatment of his sisters would also be raised. Raja said progress would depend on whether a meeting took place. “We want the release of the PTI founder and justice,” he said. Gohar listed free elections, inflation and “the people’s right to govern” among the party’s demands.
Before the talks, PTI leaders met the Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, who accepted an invitation to an all-parties conference and spoke against governor’s rule, an emergency or any suspension of the constitution. He also called for the release of women detained over the protests, including Khan’s sisters. Local media reported that PTI told the Jamaat-e-Islami delegation it was prepared to postpone the march if the government accepted its demands. The party made no such statement in public on Friday.
The prospect of federal intervention in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been the sharpest point of conflict. Federal ministers have said the centre may have no option but to impose governor’s rule or an emergency, which would put provincial functions under federal control. PTI has warned of dire consequences. No such decision has been announced. Gohar said a minister had suggested on Friday that governor’s rule could come even without a march.
The government agreed to talk after a Thursday meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, which reviewed the political and security situation. Sanaullah had said off-the-record contacts with PTI were under way, but also warned: “Even if they do not postpone it, we have arrangements in place to stop them.”
PTI had already put off the march once, from 27 September, after authorities blocked routes towards the capital with shipping containers and deployed security forces. The party’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Sohail Afridi, who has been named leader of the march, said last week that once the marchers set out there would be no turning back. The party says 4 October is the date of departure rather than arrival, and has not said when the march would reach Islamabad.
The security measures have hit businesses well beyond the capital. Truckers said they were refusing journeys north for fear their vehicles would be seized and their containers used to block roads. “Right now, going toward Punjab is like committing suicide,” said Javid ur Rehman, 35, a driver. Transporters said police took more than 2,000 vehicles in September. Rana Mohammad Aslam, president of the Karachi Goods Carrier Association, said charges on a single detained container could reach Rs30,000 to Rs40,000 a day.
Earlier protests demanding Khan’s release have turned violent, including a November 2024 march on Islamabad that ended in deadly clashes with security forces. The authorities cite that unrest in defending their restrictions, while PTI says this march will be peaceful. Khan, 74, has been in prison since August 2023 and faces multiple criminal cases. He denies wrongdoing, and PTI says the prosecutions are politically motivated. The government denies interfering in judicial proceedings.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
