PTI only interested in talks with ‘powerful quarters’: Hammad

With eyes set on the powers that be, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) waltz away from the incumbent government on Friday, saying it was only interested in talks with the ‘powerful stakeholders’, ironically, for restoring the Constitution and democracy in the country.

While showcasing its desire for an embrace with the establishment’s firm grip, former minister for economic affairs and PTI Secretary General Central Punjab, Hammad Azhar, left nothing to imagination where the former ruling party sees the center of real power.

The former minister, who was recently made a part of PTI’s negotiation team, equated holding negotiations with the leadership of the ruling alliance as nothing but a waste of time. “We don’t want to waste time negotiating with puppets,” Hamad said in a statement, saying the incumbent rulers are “imposed people with no vote bank”.

Alleging that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government was hiding behind crutches, Hammad said that “for the sake of restoration of the Constitution and democracy, negotiations have only been offered with the real decision-makers.”

The ruling parties have rejected beleaguered former premier Imran Khan’s offer for talks, stating that talks were held with politicians not terrorists and that the PTI chief is now himself seeking an NRO.

The development came as the PTI chief constituted a seven-member negotiating team to hold talks with the government—for developing consensus on a date for general elections— amid a massive crackdown.

This crackdown — which has thrown the PTI into a deep existential crisis with dozens of key party leaders jumping ship every day — was launched after the party leaders and workers allegedly vandalised and set fire to state and army properties in the wake of Khan's arrest on May 9.

For past several weeks, PTI has been looking for an opening with the powers that be but to no avail. Recently, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah lashed out at the former premier over his reluctance to engage in talks with political leaders.
The interior minister made it clear that Khan will have to call Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directly and engage in productive discussion instead of focusing on forming committees if he truly desired dialogue.

Over the years, Khan has been refusing to directly sit across the table with his political rivals as he has built his narrative on declaring them as corrupts and looters and fears that shaking hands with them would jolt his narrative and dent his vote bank.

Being the opposition leader in the National Assembly as well as the prime minister, PM Shehbaz has held out an olive branch to his bitter rival several times but things have gone beyond verbal statements only once when the government and PTI leaders recently sat down to decide dates for polls.

However, the government-PTI talks ended at stalemate as PTI leadership said they didn’t see any hope in the talks with the governments. Then, May 9 happened and things changed. However, PTI still believes that it should only talk to the powers that be instead of its political rivals.