Govt-PTI agreement: Politicians may be asked to act as guarantors

A breakthrough may be achieved today


Qamar Zaman December 26, 2014

ISLAMABAD:


Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are moving towards an agreement over issues which prompted the latter to launch a four-month-long sit-in campaign against the government and a breakthrough is likely to be made today (Friday).


Sources told The Express Tribune on Thursday that the government and PTI teams have prepared a draft of agreement. The draft will be further fine-tuned and is likely to be announced after a meeting scheduled for Friday.

“We are going to meet tomorrow and a breakthrough is likely to be reached,” PTI leader Dr Arif Alvi said, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Sources said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi will make the announcement after the meeting.  It is likely that some political leaders will be asked to become part of the agreement as guarantors.



The PTI started its protest on August 14 as it claimed that the May 2013 general elections were heavily rigged in favour of the PML-N. On November 30, the PTI chief Imran Khan had announced his plan-C, which included a series of protests in three major cities and later a lockdown of the whole country.

The party, however, announced to call off its sit-in after terrorists attacked a school in Peshawar on December 16 and killed around 150 people, including more than 130 children.

During the past months, there had been several rounds of negotiations between the two parties and the process had hit a snag on several occasions. But there was a change in government’s response after the PTI announced to call off its sit-in and decided to support the government on the issue of terrorism.

It must be noted that earlier talks between the two had deadlocked over the terms of reference (ToRs) for a judicial commission (JC) to be formed to probe the rigging allegations. The PTI had demanded that the JC should include officials from intelligence agencies – a condition not acceptable to the government.

The PTI had also demanded that the government set up the JC through an ordinance, which should bind it to give its findings within 45 days.

Sources said most of the points related to formation of the JC and other issues have been agreed upon by both the parties. The ToRs of the commission have also been agreed in line with the demands of the PTI, they added.

It must be noted that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent a letter to Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk in August, requesting him to set up a judicial commission but the PTI had complained that the government was not pursuing the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26th, 2014.

COMMENTS (14)

H Chaudhry | 9 years ago | Reply

@Ranjha Where and What massive fraud? Where are proofs of Ex CJP, Justice Ramday, Najam Sethi involvement or how they orchestrated. Sorry there has been NO MASSIVE fraud or at least no evidence exist yet.

Ranjha | 9 years ago | Reply

@farhan:

Stop spewing nonsense -- massive fraud has been discovered despite a long effort at cover up. Let the results of full audit come out. Until then, do some other darbari duties.

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