Dialogue in doldrums as PTI committee stays away from fourth round
Pakistan
The speaker reached out to PTI leaders over telephone, inviting them to participate in negotiations
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday postponed the fourth round of negotiations between the government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) due to absence of the opposition party representatives.
Earlier, the speaker reached out to PTI leaders Omar Ayub and Asad Qaiser over telephone, inviting them to participate in the negotiations.
However, Omar Ayub declined the invitation, stating that negotiations could not proceed until a judicial commission was formed.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar categorically announced a few days earlier that the PTI was no more part of the dialogue as Imran Khan had refused to proceed further over government’s failure to form a judicial commission to investigate May 9 and Nov 26 incidents.
Ayaz Sadiq, on behalf of the government, still summoned the fourth sitting despite reservations by the PTI.
The NA speaker briefly spoke and said the government believed in dialogue and expected that the PTI representatives would join them to carry the talks forward. He said political matters should be solved through dialogues and there were no preconditions in such matters.
He said the government side expected that the PTI would reconsider its move and join the dialogue process therefore, it was not disbanding the committee for now.