PTI opts out of fourth session of talks with govt on Imran Khan's direction

ISLAMABAD: While National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has convened the fourth session for negotiations between the leading opposition party and government, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday refused to attend any meeting in this regard.

The NA speaker, who is facilitating talks between the two sides, has summoned the meeting at 11:45pm on Tuesday, next week.

Senator Irfan Siddiqui, spokesperson for the government's negotiation committee, has said that the PTI has been invited to the negotiation committee meeting. "The PTI hasn't informed [us] in writing about calling off the talks," he remarked.

However, refusing to be part of any further dialogue session, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan told reporters that the party would not attend the fourth round of talks scheduled for January 28.

Separately, speaking to the media outside Parliament House earlier, Senator Siddiqui censured the former ruling party for Thursday's announcement of calling off the parleys.

"We have not called off the negotiations, but when one side abruptly ends the talks, whom are we supposed to negotiate with? Should we sit in a room and talk to the walls?" he said.

He criticised the unpredictability of the opposing side, saying: "The issue is that the prison gates open, and someone suddenly makes an announcement without the negotiation committee even being informed."

"This is not child's play; they need to move beyond these 'ifs and buts'," he said. Reiterating the agreed-upon timeline, he added that as per the agreement, the meeting was to be held on January 28.

But, in a U-turn moments before he announced that the party would not negotiate with the government, Barrister Gohar had said that the negotiations were "on hold" — this was a shift from his statement from a day earlier, wherein he quoted PTI founder Imran Khan as saying that the talks had been called off.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister's Adviser on Public and Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah said that the government could not be held responsible for ending the negotiations.

"We entered the dialogue and still want to continue, but there is a way of holding talks. It has always been that one of the parties gives their charter of demands and the other responds to it. The issues are then framed and discussed," Sanaullah said while speaking on Geo News' programme 'Geo Pakistan'

"Those they [PTI] are looking up to won’t have any discussion on any political agenda, as it has been clarified earlier. If they [PTI] still have any kind of confusion, it will be cleared in the coming days," the former federal minister added.