Ex-PM Khan party denies any dialogue with Pakistani government to ease political tensions

Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) leader and member of the National Assembly (MNA), Asad Qaiser speaks in the lower house of parliament in Islamabad, Pakistan, on December 13, 2024. (National Assembly of Pakistan)

• Reports of talks between two sides surfaced after Khan’s party members met National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq
• Ex-PM Khan this month announced his party will launch a civil disobedience campaign against government on Dec. 14

ISLAMABAD: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has not held any talks with the government to ease political tensions, PTI leader Asad Qaiser said on Friday, denying media reports suggesting a dialogue having taken place between the two sides.
Pakistani media reported this week that the PTI and the government had agreed to ease political tensions in the country after PTI’s Qaiser and Salman Akram Raja met ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) member and National Assembly speaker, Ayaz Sadiq, this week to offer condolences on his sister’s death.
Reports of negotiations surfaced after Khan earlier this month announced the PTI would launch a civil disobedience campaign from Dec. 14, if the government did not meet their demands release of political prisoners and to set up judicial commissions to investigate May 9, 2023 and Nov. 24 protests, in which the government says his supporters partook in violence and caused vandalism.
In a message to supporters on Dec. 5, Khan, who has been in jail since August last year, said he was setting up a five-member negotiations committee to hold talks with the federal government. PM Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to the speaker’s residence for condolences, following Qaiser’s meeting with Sadiq, also fueled speculation that the reported negotiations were discussed between Sadiq and the Pakistani premier.
“It is being reported in media that some dialogue, some talks have been taking place [with the government] and that I have had this kind of discussions with the speaker,” Qaiser said, while speaking in the National Assembly.
“I only went to the speaker’s residence to offer Fatiha, we did not have any dialogue, any talks.”
He said the PTI committee would hold talks with the government only if the latter demonstrated “seriousness.”
“Yes, we have definitely formed a committee and when that committee deemed appropriate and the government demonstrated seriousness, then we will see and we will formally take instructions from our founding chairman and only then things will proceed further,” Qaiser added.
Khan’s party alleges the Sharif-led coalition government came to power after rigging polls with the help of Pakistan’s all-powerful military and has staged several protests this year to demand the release of Khan and to challenge results of the Feb. 8 national election. The government and the military deny the allegations.
Rana Sanaullah, a member of Sharif’s PML-N party, said they always encouraged political dialogue and a month ago, PM Sharif, in an interaction with opposition members in the National Assembly, had offered to hold a political dialogue with them, but Opposition Leader Omar Ayub did not respond to the offer positively.
“Now they have formed a committee but they have not conveyed us this message that ‘we want to talk to you’,” Sanaullah said on a Geo News show Friday morning.
“If they sent this message to the government or the prime minister that ‘we are ready to hold talks with you,’ then it is my assessment that the PML-N will never refuse to hold a political dialogue.”