Elections in July or September? Govt-PTI talks give birth to hope

ISLAMABAD: The ice of hostility between the federal government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) somewhat melted on Friday after both sides announced progress in the second round of political dialogue over holding general polls in the country— and agreed to hold a third round this Tuesday.

Corresponding to their maiden meeting a day earlier, senior leaders from the two sides met again at the Parliament House on Friday, in a bid to forge consensus over holding general elections in the country.

Finance Minister and Leader of the House in Senate Ishaq Dar, Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar, Law Minister Azam Tarar, Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Food Security Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, Yousaf Raza Gillani and Kishwar Zehra represented the government.

Govt-PTI talks aimed at ending deadlock held

The PTI was represented by a three-member committee, comprising of party’s Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Barrister Ali Zafar and Fawad Chaudhry.

“There has been no deadlock — there has been progress from both the sides,” Dar said after the meeting ended.

Speaking to media, he said that two proposals were under consideration regarding general elections. However, he did not elaborate any further.

Reports were doing rounds that PTI proposed that general elections be held across the country in July, after Eid-ul-Azha, whereas the government suggested holding these polls in September.

“The proposals shared in today’s meeting would be put up before the allies. They would also be shared with the party leaderships,” Dar told the media.

“Neither there is any dead, nor is there any lock … there’s only talk,” Rafique, the Aviation Minister, said, on a lighter note, dismissing the reports of a deadlock between the two sides.

“Our presence here is mandated by our political parties — with an aim to find a way-out,” he added.

Separately, speaking to journalists, PTI’s Qureshi also said there has been progress between the two sides. “We will go to Lahore tomorrow to take Imran Khan into confidence regarding progress made so far.”

The PTI vice chairman said 33 workers of PTI were arrested by law enforcement agencies during the appearance of the PTI chairman at Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday. This issue, he said, was taken up with the government delegates in the meeting.

“Our workers were peacefully seated in their vehicles. There were no cases registered against them. Yet they were picked up from their cars. We raised this issue in today’s meeting. On one hand, our people are being arrested— and on the other hand, we are offered dialogue. Things cannot work like that. That’s what we told them (government side). I think they realised that we were right. So, the arrested workers were freed later,” Qureshi said.

Both Dar and Qureshi separately confirmed to the media that next meeting between the two sides was scheduled on Tuesday (due to public holiday on Monday).

The first round of talks was held between the two sides on Thursday after Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, on the request of the government, reached out to the treasury and opposition benches in the Senate for the formation of a special committee “to facilitate the initiation of political dialogue to address the ongoing political and economic crisis including the holding of general elections.”

The Senate chief, to this effect, wrote separate letters to the finance minister, in his capacity as leader of the house in Senate, and opposition leader in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem seeking the names within two days of four senators each from the two sides for the formation of a 10-member special committee under the joint convenor-ship of the leaders of the house and the opposition.

However, both the sides, reportedly conveyed to Sanjrani that their respective panels for dialogue had been formed—and the government’s delegation had three senators— Dar, Gillani and Tarar—and the opposition’s three-member delegation had only one senator—Zafar.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023