‘No talks offered to PML-N’: PTI chief refutes reports of parleys

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan on Sunday rebuked reports suggesting the prospects of indirect talks between his party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), saying the Imran Khan-founded party has not offered any dialogue to the ruling party.

Speaking to a private TV channel Barrister Gohar noted that only matters pertaining to the National Assembly were discussed during their meeting with NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and said: “The PTI neither offered any talks nor sought any favours.”

His statement comes in the wake of reports backing the prospects of dialogue between the PTI and its arch-rival the PML-N.

In contrast to the PTI chairman’s rebuttal, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman and the PTI-led opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz Aiyeen-e-Pakistan chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai confirmed the offer of negotiations by the PML-N.

“All the political leadership, including Nawaz Sharif, is on the same page with regard to the Constitution, I have met Rana Sanaullah. There is no other way to take the country forward except through negotiations,” Achakzai said during an informal conversation with journalists in Islamabad.

Recalling that the PTI had picked him to lead the negotiations, Achakzai remarked that the former ruling party should have given a positive response to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer of talks and that apart from Khan, the party leadership’s opposition to dialogue did not matter.

Despite the veteran politician’s confirmation, ambiguity surrounds the prospects of PTI-PML-N talks as incarcerated Khan has time again ruled out negotiations with the Nawaz Sharif-led party, saying that he would hold only talk with those who wield real power in the country.

“Achakzai will only [hold] talk with political parties,” Khan said last month while stressing that he was open to talks but only within the “ambit provisioned by the Constitution”.