Fawad urges establishment to facilitate political dialogue

ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday said PTI founder Imran Khan and the PMLN were ready for negotiations and the establishment should provide an environment for a grand political dialogue.

“It is not the issue of individuals now given the serious challenges the country is faced with today. It underscores the need for a grand political dialogue with Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mehmood Khan Achakzai and others,” he said while talking to reporters outside the Election Commission Secretariat here.

He said all should converge for the restoration of political process, adding that there had been no terrorism in Pakistan for three and a half years, but today it had returned in full, the solution to all problems was to hold a grand political dialogue as problems could not be solved by raising people or using guns. Pakistan today needs a charter to restore the Constitution, enabling it to move towards stability.

Referring to the establishment, he argued that political players should be given space, paving the way for a grand political dialogue. He regretted that the lawyers community and journalist bodies were not playing their due role in the given situation. He claimed that despite sitting in jail, Imran managed to pocket maximum numbers of 40 million votes with the PTI leadership seen nowhere. The prime minister and others appear goats before Imran Khan.

“You can’t bring political and economic stability minus Imran. All the difficulties of today are because of minus Imran,” he said, adding that today “Pakistan’s foreign policy is lonely, we have distanced ourselves from China while Pakistan is not getting a single rupee loan, whereas we have mortgaged the economy to the IMF”.

Meanwhile, Fawad once again apologized in the ECP contempt case based on his ‘controversial media talk in January last year’ before a four-member ECP bench chaired by Member Sindh Nisar Durrani. “I want to follow the will of the commission. Just as it pardoned Captain (R) Safdar, I urge the commission to also forgive me,” he contended.

To this, the member Sindh inquired if he wanted someone else to be punished for what he did. To this, Fawad said he would submit an apology. The commission should end the matter today.

In response, the bench asked him to submit an apology letter and then they would see. Later, the bench postponed the hearing till September 19