PTI to weigh talks versus protest

PESHAWAR:

The PTI leadership has decided to consult its Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly parliamentary party on whether to pursue negotiations with the federal government or launch protests as part of its future political strategy.

According to sources, the provincial assembly's parliamentary party will discuss the matter at its meeting scheduled for today (Monday), following demands by lawmakers at a recent parliamentary party meeting that they be taken into confidence over negotiations with the government.

Sources said the party leadership agreed to involve provincial lawmakers in consultations on the way forward and asked them to discuss whether the party should resume negotiations or adopt a protest strategy.

Some reports suggested that the leadership delegated the decision on talks and protests entirely to the parliamentary party instead of the party's political and core committees.

However, PTI lawmakers contacted for comment disputed this interpretation, saying the authority to decide on negotiations and protests had been assigned, in accordance with PTI founder Imran Khan's decision, to Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas.

Achakzai and Abbas respectively serve as opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate.

They said the party's political and core committees retained their respective roles in decision-making and no major decision could be taken without the approval of the PTI founder.

The provincial parliamentary party, they added, had authority over parliamentary affairs and was seeking the inclusion of some K-P assembly members in the negotiating process.