PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Saturday said that the party would not continue negotiations with the government to bring down the political temperature unless it was granted \u201cuninterrupted access\u201d ex-premier Imran Khan for consultation, saying that only he could make any final decisions.<\/p>\n
Since Imran\u2019s incarceration last year in several cases, PTI\u2019s relations with the government and the establishment have deteriorated sharply, marked by protests that frequently escalated into violence amid state repression.<\/p>\n
Following the turmoil, Imran established a five-member committee to hold talks with \u201canyone\u201d, signalling a shift in PTI lawmakers\u2019 stance in parliament. In response, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also formed a committee with ruling coalition members.<\/p>\n
The first meeting between the two sides took place on December 23, while the second one occurred on January 2. So far, the two sides have not made significant headway, as the PTI leadership sought frequent meetings with Imran to finalise their list of demands. The government and the opposition will meet again, possibly next week.<\/p>\n
Speaking on DawnNewsTV programme \u2018Doosra Rukh\u2019 today, Qaiser said. \u201cWe have requested uninterrupted access to Imran Khan. If that does not happen, then we will not be in a position to make any commitments or for talks to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the government had also agreed in principle with the demand for daily meetings.<\/p>\n
The PTI leader, who also served as the National Assembly Speaker during Imran\u2019s tenure, drew comparisons with the PPP and the PML-N, asking, \u201cDo you think they do anything without the permission of Nawaz Sharif, or Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari or Asif Zardari?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is reality. Only Imran Khan will make the main decisions,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Qaiser said that if Imran could not make decisions, then the talks would no longer be able to continue. \u201cIf he has any reservations about the negotiations and distances himself from them, then they no longer matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PTI leader said that the committee was creating an environment for talks and acting as a facilitator so that \u201cmatters can be resolved properly\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that there needed to be uninterrupted access to other incarcerated party leaders for political consultations.<\/p>\n
When asked if he would leave the committee if access was not granted, Qaiser replied, \u201cThe whole committee will fail. This process needs to be gradual and careful while keeping the interests of the public in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the main stakeholders \u201calso need to be considered and they need to meet with the government\u201d. Qaiser clarified that the party\u2019s points were \u201cvery clear\u201d.<\/p>\n
The PTI leader said that he recommended that the committee meet with the government again next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Saturday said that the party would not continue negotiations with the government to bring down the political temperature unless it was granted \u201cuninterrupted access\u201d ex-premier Imran Khan for consultation, saying that only he could make any final decisions. Since Imran\u2019s incarceration last year in several cases, PTI\u2019s relations with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4450,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions\/4450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}