PTI missed out on ‘major relief’ by quitting talks: Irfan Siddiqui

LAHORE: Senator Irfan Siddiqui, the spokesperson for government’s negotiating committee, claimed on Saturday that the Imran Khan-founded party “missed an opportunity to get a big relief”.

Speaking in Geo News programme ‘Jirga’, he said the former ruling party was not built for dialogue or negotiations. He reiterated that both committees had mutually agreed to proceed with negotiations, irrespective of external developments.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) senator refuted reports of any raid on Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza’s seminary in Faisalabad. “PTI was looking to withdraw from the dialogue and thus it made up an excuse to do so,” he said.

To a question related to the new US president becoming a beacon of hope for the PTI, Siddiqui mocked the former ruling party, saying that Donald Trump had more [important] tasks to accomplish. Ruling out any possibility of PTI receiving any form of relief from the US, he added that the party’s epicentre of hope had always been an individual, whether Musharraf or another influential figure and that “it has now set sights on Trump”.