By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday renewed his invitation for talks with the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, insisting that dialogue could proceed only on legitimate issues and warning against any attempts at blackmail, as political tensions continued to roil the country amid deepening economic woes and polarization.
The offer, made during a federal cabinet meeting, came amid reports that PTI leaders and their allies were signaling interest in negotiations, even as the party’s imprisoned founder, Imran Khan, pushed for street protests to demand rights and constitutional supremacy. “I read it in the newspaper today that PTI and its allies are calling for a dialogue,” Sharif said. “I had invited them to the assembly, and I had invited them earlier as well. If they are ready for dialogue, then the government of Pakistan is absolutely ready.”
The Prime Minister added that harmony among all political parties was essential for Pakistan’s progress and prosperity, but stressed that discussions must be grounded in valid demands. “Blackmailing will not work under the guise of negotiations,” he said.
Pakistan has been gripped by political instability since Khan’s ouster in a no-confidence vote in 2022, with his party alleging a state-orchestrated crackdown that has seen much of its leadership, including Khan and his wife, imprisoned on charges ranging from corruption to inciting violence. The PTI has rejected these as fabricated and has contested the February 2024 elections that installed Sharif’s coalition government, claiming widespread rigging.
The latest overture follows a pattern of intermittent outreach from the government, which has repeatedly extended olive branches only to see them rebuffed or stalled. Last December, the two sides began negotiations to ease tensions, but the process faltered over PTI demands for judicial inquiries into protests on May 9, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2024, as well as the release of party prisoners.
In February, Sharif again proposed talks, with National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq affirming that the option remained open. But PTI leader Asad Qaiser swiftly dismissed it, citing intensified raids and arrests of party workers. “How they could enter a dialogue with the government when the rulers had stepped up the crackdown on the PTI,” he said at the time. Similar offers surfaced in August during a parliamentary debate on Kashmir and in November amid protests over a constitutional amendment bill. On Nov. 13, Sadiq reiterated his willingness to facilitate discussions, and on Nov. 28, he told visiting lawmakers that dialogue was the path to resolution.
More recently, on Dec. 6, after a PTI-backed senator decried the lack of rule of law and restrictions on meetings with Khan, Adviser to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah extended another invitation in the Senate. “The government was ready to hold a dialogue with the opposition to take the country forward, but the PTI leadership remained unwilling,” he said, adding without naming the military that “those who they want [to have] dialogue [with] are not ready for talks with them.”
The PTI’s internal signals have been mixed. On Monday, party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan told a private television channel that negotiations should not be abandoned. “The opposition must be given space,” he said. “I strongly support dialogue. Whatever movement takes place, dialogue should continue alongside it. This is something we should not give up.” But just two days earlier, Khan appeared to override such sentiments, rejecting a call for talks from Mahmood Khan Achakzai, head of the opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan. “My message for Sohail Afridi is to prepare for a street movement. The entire nation must rise for their rights!!,” read a post on Khan’s X account.
PTI information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram confirmed that Khan’s directive for protests would take precedence. He noted that Achakzai could pursue his own initiatives, but party leaders were bound by the founder’s instructions, including orders to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister to mobilise for demonstrations upholding the rule of law and the Constitution. A government minister said meaningful talks were impossible without PTI expressing regret or apologising for the May 9 incidents and its anti-army social media campaigns.
The push for reconciliation has echoed beyond the main rivals. At a Dec. 21 national conference of the opposition alliance, participants agreed that in a democracy, the door to dialogue must never close, emphasising the need for a new Charter of Democracy amid the national crisis. That same day, at a reference event in Lahore, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar called for a national political charter based on tolerance and dialogue, while Sanaullah argued that stability required mutual respect and sustained engagement. Achakzai, at the conference, lambasted the state of the Constitution as “reduced to tatters” and appealed to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to lead talks to avert further crisis.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
