Restoration of old PTI negotiating committee recommended

ISLAMABAD: Senior government officials have held a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak to discuss the status of negotiations being held with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) federal government coalition partners.

In that regard, a Pervez Khattak-led delegation is to meet the prime minister on Wednesday [today] to recommend restoration of the old government committees for the negotiations.

According to sources, the PTI meeting was attended by senior party leaders including Asad Umar and Shafqat Mehmood. The meeting participants said the government’s allies had expressed concerns and raised objections over the formation of new negotiation committees and wanted to resume deliberations under the old committee headed by Pervez Khattak.

The meeting came to the conclusion that the negotiations were facing a deadlock due to the formation of the new committees and, as such, it will be recommended to the prime minister that he consider restoring the old committee for the talks.

The differences between the PTI and its ruling coalition partners currently seem unresolved, with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), in particular, saying that the PTI was not honouring the commitments made to it.