Key backchannel event: Gohar, Gandapur met 3 very important persons

ISLAMABAD: Backchannel talks between the ‘government’ and the PTI, which paused a few weeks back amid focus on the formal dialogue process between the two sides, have revived and entered an important stage.

An informed source has said that two PTI leaders Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had an exclusive meeting with three very important persons. The meeting, the venue of which was neither Islamabad nor Rawalpindi, was reportedly held last Monday.

However, neither has there been any official confirmation of this backchannel meeting nor has the PTI confirmed it. In fact, when contacted, Barrister Gohar said no such meeting had been held.

The source, however, insists that a meeting of great importance has been held, and that these backchannel meetings will continue. In the next meeting, a federal minister and two important persons will apparently meet the PTI side. However, the result of these meetings depends on the PTI’s future policies and its style of politics. It has to accept the system and distance itself from politics of agitation and confrontation.

Before this latest backchannel meeting, a key PTI leader had met a federal minister and an important official in the third week of December.

It was reported by this newspaper while quoting a source that the message for the PTI was that if it continued with its policy of agitation, and violence, attacking the army and its top leadership and hurting the economy, these backchannel contacts would not amount to much. If the party opts for reconciliation, it would require a clear change of policy and departure from its past few years of politics.

According to the source, primarily Imran Khan will have to decide: If the PTI wants political space and intends to return to normal politics, it will have to stop its confrontation with the army and its top leadership and in no manner do any politics which may hurt the economy of the country.

It was also reported then that the future of these backchannel talks and their success depends on required confidence-building measures from the PTI side. Clear signs of departure from the past two and half years of policy will help the PTI get much-needed political space.

In case of required CBMs, the PTI will also see a change for the better which, the source insists, may not be immediate but will be incremental and sustainable. In case of a continuation of politics of agitation and attacks on the army and economy, the source says the PTI will get nothing but more difficulties.Backchannel contacts were also active during the SCO Summit and during the PTI’s Nov 24 protest march to Islamabad. The PTI had originally announced a protest on D-Chowk on the occasion of the SCO Summit. However, after backchannel contacts between the two sides, doctors from PIMS hospital were allowed to visit Imran Khan. The PTI wanted Imran’s personal physician from Shaukat Khanum Hospital but it was agreed during the backchannel talks that the PTI would call off the D-Chowk protest during the SCO Summit even if PIMS doctors were allowed to visit Imran Khan.Later, these backchannel contacts became active when the PTI announced its ‘Final Call’ for the Nov 24, 2023 march to Islamabad. Through backchannel negotiations, some PTI leaders including Ali Amin Gandapur, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Barrister Saif were facilitated to meet Imran Khan but the PTI founder insisted on his immediate release from jail. Khan had also agreed to the government’s suggestion to stop the protest at Sangjani (in the outskirts of Islamabad). However, Bushra Bibi led the march to D-Chowk and it all ended on the Nov 26 episode. The Nov 26 events were a serious jolt for these backchannel interactions, which were paused amid the initiation of a formal dialogue between the government and the PTI.