Fawad suggests govt to hold talks with opposition

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry suggested on Monday that the government should hold talks with the opposition, Geo News reported.

“The narrative of the opposition has died after yesterday’s (Sunday’s) Jalsa (rally) in Lahore,” he said, adding it was high time the government paved way for the opposition and started negotiations with them.

Speaking at a press conference alongside Prime Minister’s aide Shahbaz Gill, the minister said Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai happens to be an anti-Punjab character who spoke ill of Lahoris in front of the people of Punjab.

Chaudhry added that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were to be blamed for allowing Achakzai. “Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) silence has broken the hearts of Lahoris, Punjabis, as well as Pakistanis. PML-N has backstabbed Punjab before too so it’s not surprising,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the minister had taken to Twitter and wrote that Achakzai should have accepted his failure at the Minar-e-Pakistan Jalsa but decided not to because of his arrogance. Chaudhry called Achakzai “ignorant” and questioned his loyalty to the country. “Achakzai does not even know that every movement for democracy in Pakistan started from Lahore,” Chaudhry wrote on Twitter.

During the press briefing, Chaudhry also said PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz’s speech at the PDM rally on Sunday had no agenda. “She only talked about herself, her father, her family, and how Imran Khan is bad, and that’s about it,” he said.