ISLAMABAD: The opposition leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub on Wednesday said it point blank: talks with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led (PML-N) government can take place only once Imran Khan and other detained party leaders and workers are freed from prisons.

The statement from Ayub, who is also Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secretary general, comes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered an olive branch to the PTI while speaking in the National Assembly that “if Imran Khan has problems in prison, let’s sit and talk”.

The prime minister also went to the seat of the opposition leader and shook hands with other leaders sitting in the front row as he maintained that talks are the only way forward to ease the hardship for jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan.

However, the opposition leader insisted that talks with the ruling regime are possible only if Imran Khan, other party leaders and hundreds of workers are released from jails.

“You must not forget that you tortured our workers…you’ve intentionally been parking the prison vans carrying our female workers under the scorching sun at 45 degrees Celsius. My prime minister Imran Khan is being kept in a death cell, there’s an oven-like situation there in the prison cell,” he said, amid sloganeering from the treasury benches.

Amid ruckus in the house, Ayub said that the house proceedings could only continue if the government members respected the opposition MPs.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024