PDM-PTI negotiations ‘not to bear fruit’

Provincial President of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Pervaz Khattak has said that negotiations between Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and PTI will not bear fruit because the ruling coalition was not sincere about it.

“These negotiations are just a tactic to buy more and more time and the government is not willing to hold elections,” he said while talking to journalists on Saturday.

Khattak said that if the PDM wants the elections of the provincial and national assemblies on the same day then it should dissolve the national assembly and provincial assemblies too to pave way for it.

“We will not hold talks with PDM in the future and there should be no negotiations with them on this issue,” he maintained, adding that PTI has moved the Supreme Court for Punjab elections while the K-P elections case has been in the Peshawar High Court.

“We expect that the courts would decide the case as per the constitution and if the constitution is violated then it would be a great injustice with this country,” he observed.

“It will be a great injustice too if the judges are insulted by the rulers of this country and it will be a law of the jungle then,” he said, adding that PTI has no objection to a full court to decide cases.

Khattak hit out at the PDM by saying that it took power to clear cases against key figures of the ruling coalition.

“These people have no intention to serve the masses. They are in power to fulfil their own personal agenda,” he added.

Replying to a question about the tussle between the parliament and Supreme Court, Pervaz Khattak said that personal motives had made the rulers blind as introducing any amendments needed a two-thirds majority instead of simple majority,

“PDM fears that Imran Khan will sweep the elections and that is why they are employing such tactics. But in politics some people will win and others will lose. It is part of the game so they should go for the polls,” he shared.

Khattak said that PTI has no misunderstanding about the intentions of the PDM and government and that is why it will not hold talks with the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2023.