PTI offers talks resumption but with caveat

Deadlock over judicial commissions deepens

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ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has once again changed its tune on the already fragile negotiations with the government, hinting that it could return to the table a day after announcing a deadlock.

In the latest development on Friday, the former ruling party conveyed that it could be open to continuing talks, but only if the government meets its key demands – setting up the judicial commissions and releasing political prisoners, including PTI founder Imran Khan.

The conditional offer comes on the heels of PTI's earlier stance on January 23, when it set a hard deadline for the formation of judicial commissions, only for the party to later put talks on hold after the government failed to act within the set time frame.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar had earlier said that the party supremo put the talks on hold due to the government's failure to meet the party's demands.

The embattled party's wavering stance was laid bare as it not only refused to attend the upcoming fourth round of talks, scheduled for January 28 but also insisted that discussions could only resume if the government accepted its demands.

Speaking to the media outside Parliament, Gohar initially claimed that the talks had been cancelled after the government refused to meet PTI's demand to establish judicial commissions within a seven-day timeframe.

However, the government rejected it, calling PTI's deadline 'unfortunate' and clarifying that the initial agreement had referred to "seven working days" - meaning the deadline for a response was not yet over.

In a reversal of his earlier statement, Gohar clarified that Imran had merely put the talks on hold, not called them off entirely. He quickly added that PTI could reconsider negotiations with the government if its conditions were met, adding that this would demonstrate the government's sincerity.

Gohar further pointed out that the lack of progress exposed the government's true intentions, questioning what was preventing it from announcing the formation of the commissions now.

The much-needed negotiations between the PML-N and opposition PTI had come to a screeching halt on January 23 after Imran directed Gohar to call off talks with the ruling coalition for not constituting judicial commissions to probe May 9 and November 26 incidents within the stipulated time.

Following PTI's decision, the spokesperson for the government's negotiation committee Senator Irfan Siddiqui had said the deadline was still not over as it was agreed in the last meeting that the government side would respond to PTI's charter of demands within "seven working days" and not in just seven days.

The government negotiation committee's spokesperson had said that it was decided in the third round of talks between the two sides that the government committee would submit its response within seven working days, which he said ends on January 28 – the day when the speaker of the National Assembly has called committees' meeting at 11:45am.

Reiterating that PTI must review its decision, Siddiqui had said that PTI took 42 days to submit its charter of demands but was demanding the government side's response within a week, wondering why it couldn't wait for just five more days.

He said that the government committee was diligently working to prepare its response but PTI went back with the same eagerness with which it came for holding talks with the ruling alliance, adding "We ask them to wait for a while" and review the decision.

Currently, the fate of talks hangs in balance as PTI has made it clear that the only way to end the stalemate was to constitute commissions as it desired. However, the government side maintains that the opposition side should have waited for the government's response before hurriedly calling off talks.

Commenting on rumours that the government was not willing to constitute commissions, Siddiqui had said that the PTI committee should have at least listened to the government's written response in the next meeting as the government side never said that it would not constitute judicial commissions.

Moreover, he said, it would have been better if PTI had given a statement in writing to end talks instead of conveying the same to the government via media.

Following PTI's refusal, Siddiqui had said that the government's committee would sit and decide about the future course of action on Jan 28.

Both sides had sat across the table on December 23, 2024, to discuss long-standing issues and find a way forward. Since then, the committees have met thrice. As per the government's demand, PTI had submitted its charter of demand in the third meeting on January 16 and was waiting for its response.

The talks aimed to bring political and economic stability to the country by settling long-standing issues between the two sides. However, both sides have now disputed the deadline and, resultantly, the process has come to an abrupt end.