Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Sunday met Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) president and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman at the latter’s party centre in Peshawar to convince him to participate in the government’s negotiations with the PTI.
The two leaders offered Fateha for the late religious affairs minister, JUI-F MNA Mufti Abdul Shakoor, who recently died in a road accident in Islamabad.
They also discussed the prevailing political and judicial crises in the country.
Sanjrani, accompanied by a JUI-F delegation, also visited the residence of the late party MNA, to offer his condolences to the bereaved family.
The JUI-F is the only party in the ruling coalition opposing talks with the PTI.
On Thursday, the JUI-F chief announced that his party would not participate in the negotiations with the opposition party over the date of elections.
The announcement was made hours before the government comprising the PDM and PPP held the first round of talks on the initiative of the Senate chairman with Imran Khan-led PTI on the issue of elections.
He said his party had taken a position that the matter should be handled by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which should exercise its powers.
“I do not believe that sitting with the PTI will lead to a solution,” he added.
The PDM president said the Supreme Court’s decision to hold the elections in Punjab on May 14 was not enforceable and the judges should correct it themselves, adding that the polls had always been held on a single day in Pakistan throughout its history.
The JUI-F chief maintained that the party, which won in Punjab, would also come to power at the Centre.
He said that the SC had claimed it had nothing to do with the negotiations but also took a hard stance by staying with its decision about the polls on May 14.
However, he added that during the hearing on Thursday, the court’s demeanour seemed to have changed, saying it did not insist on talks between politicians, something it had been consistently pushing for over the last few weeks.
On the same day, Sanjrani had penned separate letters to the leader of the house and the opposition to nominate members from both the treasury and opposition benches to constitute a special committee for holding a political dialogue.
In the letters, the Senate chairman wrote that both leaders, Senator Ishaq Dar and Dr Shahzad Waseem, were requested to provide the names of four members for inclusion in the special committee within two days.
Sanjrani added that the Senate, being a stabilising factor of the federation, was constitutionally bestowed with the responsibility of protecting the national and political harmony vis-a-vis the national and public interest.
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