ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan has dismissed reports suggesting his party is holding an indirect dialogue with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), saying the PTI hasn’t offered any talks to the ruling party.
“The PTI neither offered any talks nor sought any favours,” Barrister Gohar said while speaking to a local TV channel on Sunday.
The PTI chairman said that during their meeting with NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq only matters pertaining to the National Assembly were discussed.
The PTI chief’s remarks come after reports surfaced in the media backing the prospects of dialogue between the PTI and its arch-rival the PML-N.
Contrary to the PTI chairman’s rebuttal, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman and the PTI-led opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz Aiyeen-e-Pakistan chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai confirmed the offer of talks by the PML-N.
Achakzai during an informal discussion with journalists in Islamabad said, “All the political leadership, including Nawaz Sharif, is on the same page with regard to the Constitution, I have met Rana Sanaullah. There is no other way to take the country forward except through negotiations.”
Achakzai remarked that the PTI should have given a positive response to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer of negotiations.
Despite the senior politician’s confirmation, there is ambiguity regarding the prospects of PTI-PML-N talks as its founder has time again ruled out negotiations with the Nawaz Sharif-led party.
A day earlier, two senior leaders of the PML-N Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif opposed the prospects of talks with the PTI.
Asif said that he was not part of the team assigned to negotiate with the PkMAP chairman adding that he was not in favour of any such dialogue with the former ruling party.
