Talks only with PTI moderates, says PM's aide

Coordinator to the PM on the K-P Affairs Ikhtiar Wali Khan has said if the government enters into negotiations with the PTI, it will hold that negotiation only with the opposition party's moderate and senior leadership, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

"Talks ill begin only if the voices of senior PTI leaders, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi and others, are heard within the party," Ikhtiar said on Saturday, speaking on Express News' programme Centre Stage,

Ikhtiar claimed that the PTI has split into different factions and is now stuck over the issue of negotiations. He said the group opposing negotiations has announced resistance and a street movement, while PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan is merely a nominal chairman.

"The PTI's so-called street movement is, in fact, a street food movement," he said, questioning what the party hopes to achieve through resistance.

A day earlier, PM's Adviser Rana Sanaullah claimed that PTI leaders were seeking dialogue with the government, but jailed party founder Imran Khan opposed the move.