Next round of talks between Pak govt, Imran Khans party could be held on Jan 28: Rana Sanaullah
Rana Sanaullah, a key member of the official team negotiating with the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said on Tuesday that the next round of talks between the two sides could be held on January 28.
Sanaullah, political advisor to the prime minister, said in an interview with Geo News that the government and allies after a meeting set up a subcommittee to come up with a detailed response to the charter of demands presented by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party during the third round of talks held on January 16.
He said that it was agreed that the government would respond to the PTI demands after seven working days.
“We will ask for a meeting on January 28 and present a detailed response to their demands,” he said.
Earlier, the government and its allies met in Islamabad (on Tuesday evening) and discussed the issue of the next meeting with the PTI.
Sanaullah’s remarks come when the fate of talks between the government and PTI hang in the balance over the issue of formation of judicial commissions.
The two sides began formal negotiations on December 23 last year to address the prevailing tension and political instability due to the protests by the PTI against the alleged rigging of last year’s elections and arrest of its workers and leaders.
The PTI presented its charter of demands during the third round of talks held on January 16, giving the government seven days to set up two judicial commissions to probe the incidents of May 9, 2023, and November 26, 2024.
The key demand has become a sticking point, as the government has not agreed so far to form the commissions and Khan asked his party to stop the talks if the key demand was not met.
The Dawn newspaper reported that PTI chief Gohar Ali Khan told the media on Monday outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail that Khan had directed the negotiating team to withdraw from talks if the judicial commission was not formed within seven days.
Gohar emphasised that the establishment of the judicial commission was critical for a meaningful dialogue, saying that if the government did not move forward on forming the commission, there was no point in continuing the negotiations.
Gohar reportedly said that there wouldn’t be a fourth round of talks if the commissions were not constituted. However, he added that the PTI team would wait for seven days for a response from the government side. Meanwhile, the government’s negotiation committee was mulling over extending its seven-day deadline by another week to submit its response to the PTI demands, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, the spokesperson for the government’ negotiation committee, said.
“Currently, the seven parties, included in the government committee, are in the process of mutual consultation and seeking guidance from their respective leaderships,” Senator Siddiqui wrote on X on Monday, adding that “it may take another week to prepare the final response”.
The government committee spokesperson also refuted reports that claimed that the ruling coalition had already prepared its response. He said that there was no truth in the news and all such stories were baseless.
Siddiqui’s statement came against the backdrop of several reports that claimed that the government side’s response was ready and the government had decided not to constitute a judicial commission on the May 9, 2023, incidents.
The reports further claimed that the government committee had discussed the PTI’s demands – formation of judicial commissions and release of political prisoners, including Imran Khan – and decided that the commission could not be formed on May 9.
There were several reasons for not accepting the demand, the reports said, such as sensitive civil and military installations were attacked on that day; the accused were already on trial; and several accused had already been convicted of May 9 attacks.
Siddiqui, however, refuted all such claims by saying that no decision was made on the PTI demands.
The difference of opinion on the core demand is pushing the two sides in the opposite directions and the date for the fourth meeting has not yet been decided.
The PTI had also earlier announced to conclude talks by January 31, however, the deadline is unlikely to be met due to the current differences.
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