Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, Barrister Ali Zafar, issued a seven-day deadline to the government on Wednesday over the ongoing negotiations to break the political deadlock, Aaj News reported.
He said that the PTI has made written demands and that more meetings will be cancelled if the government does not respond in writing within seven days.
PTI’s demands: govt forms a sub-committee
Zafar emphasised the ambiguity caused by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution and linked the Al-Qadir Trust case to Hassan Nawaz, who allegedly bought a property in London while his father Nawaz Sharif was premier.
He asked why the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had not looked into the funding source for the purchase and subsequent sale of the property.
The NAB’s initial claim that the property was sold for £190 million was criticised by Zafar, who said that further investigations showed no proof of stolen money. He stressed that compromising the constitution also hurts parliament and urged the present government to learn from its mistakes.
Amid a looming deadlock in talks between the ruling coalition and PTI, the government’s negotiation committee on Tuesday formed a sub-committee to respond to PTI’s charter of demands, submitted to it last week.
Asif says PTI succeeded in establishing contact with ‘establishment’
Following a meeting chaired by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah, a member of the government’s negotiation committee, announced the decision to establish a sub-committee tasked with addressing the demands put forth by PTI.
“We will give the government’s response to the opposition in the next meeting,” he told reporters, adding that the sub-committee was reviewing PTI’s demands.
In response to a question regarding the seven-day deadline set by jailed PTI founding chairman Imran Khan for constituting the judicial commissions, he said that they (PTI) are free to make any statement or a move that best suits them.
However, he said that the government side’s sub-committee would respond to PTI’s charter of demand in writing in the next meeting.
Earlier, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that PTI has succeeded in its aim to establish contact with the establishment.
Talking to journalists outside Parliament House, he said that the PTI has confirmed that they have made contact with the establishment. “If that is the case, what is the need for holding talks with us,” he questioned.
Asif remarked that PTI’s goal was to reach the establishment and they have succeeded in it, adding that talks are part of politics, but their efforts were focused elsewhere.
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