Talks: Gohar rules out 'elders meeting'

PTI chairman says such a meeting is not possible

RAWALPINDI:

PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan has said if talks have been reduced to the level of a "meeting of five elders," then such talks should be rejected outright.

"Neither is there a need for such a meeting nor can those five elders even meet," Gohar said on Tuesday outside Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, where PTI founder Imran Khan is detained.

Gohar was responding to a statement of Adviser to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah.

While talking to a private news channel on January 1, Sanaullah said "confidence-building measures" between five major players in the country would improve the overall political situation.

"Two of them are my leaders, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif. The third is President Asif Ali Zardari, the fourth is [incarcerated PTI leader] Imran Khan, and everyone knows who the fifth is," Sanaullah was reported as saying.

Days after an opposition alliance — the TTAP — issued its charter of demand while also announcing "a wheel-jam and shutter-down" protest at the second anniversary of "highly rigged' Feb 8 elections, the PM on Dec 23 offered an olive branch to the PTI.

The PTI, however, stated that it could not enter talks "from a position of weakness" as it continued to make preparations for a street movement.

Talking with reference to his statement from last Tuesday, Gohar clarified that his statement about "begging for meetings" had been distorted.

Talking to reporters outside Adiala Jail on Dec 30, Gohar was reported as saying that not only outsiders but also "people from within" were complicit in forcing them to "beg" authorities for a meeting with the PTI founder.

"No matter how intense a street movement becomes, there is no alternative to dialogue," he had said, adding that there were no instructions from Imran to halt negotiations.

Gohar clarified that what he meant was that if, despite court orders, SOPs, and jail rules, they are not allowed to meet Imran Khan, then it indeed amounts to begging.

"If meetings are not permitted, any kind of negotiations become meaningless. Making meetings controversial will not move matters forward," he said. He warned that both sides would have to pay a heavy price to normalize the situation.

Gohar said they visit every Tuesday and return without a meeting, and for over a month no one has been allowed to meet the party founder.

He said efforts made by the PTI to improve the situation were met with equal efforts from the other side to worsen it. He said the greatest strength of the PTI founder and his party lay in its workers, who have endured all kinds of hardships imposed by the state.

He announced that a shutter-down and wheel-jam strike would be observed across the country on February 8, and that the party would stage full-scale protests on that day. He said that for normalization of the situation, meetings with sisters and lawyers were essential.

Separately, PTI Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja said the PTI has no chairman other than Imran Khan. He said there was no benefit in holding any kind of negotiations without the PTI founder.

He rejected claims that the party was answerable to Aleema Khan, saying there was no truth in such assertions. He said their first and last demand was a meeting with the party founder.