ISLAMABAD: A federal government committee and a team of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leaders will resume negotiations today (Friday) to build consent on holding polls for the national and provincial assemblies on one date.
The first round of talks was held at the parliament house on Thursday. The government nominated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leaders Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Law Minister Azam Tarar, and Ayaz Sadiq while Pakistan Peoples’ Party leaders Yousaf Raza Gillani and Syed Naveed Qamar are members of the committee. The MQM-P’s Kishwar Zehra is also part of the government-nominated committee.
Meanwhile, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Barrister Ali Zafar and senior leader Fawad Chaudhry represented the PTI. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl skipped the talks. As per details, the first round of negotiations between the government and the opposition party concluded Thursday evening, with both sides set to meet on Friday (today) at 3pm to take forward the negotiation process.
Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani had written separate letters to the leader of the house and the opposition to nominate members from both the treasury and opposition benches to form a special committee for holding political dialogue.
The much-debated negotiations followed Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial’s comments that “courts cannot force political parties to hold negotiations”, stressing that the top court merely sought adherence to the Constitution and an end to the impasse over the delay in elections.
Last week, adopting a carrot and stick policy, the top court had asked all political players to evolve a consensus on date for holding general elections of National Assembly and four provincial assemblies simultaneously, otherwise, the court had noted, its order regarding the Punjab Assembly elections on May 14 would come into force.
