Imran wanted talks on COAS appointment: PM

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday that PTI Chairman Imran Khan offered to conduct talks with the government a month ago through a mutual businessman friend.

PM Shehbaz spoke about Khan’s offer during a meet-up with vloggers in Lahore.

“Imran Khan offered [to conduct] negotiations,” the prime minister said, adding that the PTI chief wanted to settle two issues through dialogue.

“The first matter was the army chief’s appointment and the second was holding snap elections,” PM Shehbaz revealed while addressing vloggers.

The extended term of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa will come to an end on November 29 and the coalition government has time and again stressed that his successor will be appointed in due course and in line with the Constitution.

The premier said that while he refused to negotiate on the aforementioned matters, he offered to discuss the Charter of Democracy and Charter of Economy with Khan.

The prime minister shared that Khan offered to send him three names and sought three from him to appoint the next army chief. PM Shehbaz said Khan told him “let’s appoint the army chief together”.

“I thanked him and refused [the offer]. I sent a message to Imran Khan that is a constitutional duty that the prime minister has to perform,” he shared during the meet-up.

Commenting on the high-level presser held by the Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar and Inter-Services Intelligence Chief Nadeem Anjum, the premier said: “General Nadeem Anjum held the press conference with my permission.”

Reacting to the PM’s disclosure that Imran had requested for appointing the new COAS jointly, the PTI chairman said that holding of early, fair and free polls would be his only demand, if talks were held.

Khan also took to Twitter to write, “For all those spreading rumours about my meetings in Lahore, the reason we returned was because Lahore was closed & we had already decided not to move at night. The only demand I have been making for 6 months is date for early fair & free elections. That will be the only demand if talks are to be held.”

Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan asked Imran Khan to sit with the PDM leadership unconditionally.

Sparring with social media users, the federal minister said, “The talks are possible only when Imran Khan Niazi behaves like a politician.”

In order to bring any improvement to Pakistan, he urged Imran Khan to unconditionally call the leadership of the PDM and sit down with them to discuss the matter.

According to Sana, the general elections would be held after the current assembly’s constitutional term came to a conclusion. There are around 10 to 12 thousand people participating in Khan’s long march with merely almost 600 vehicles, he said.

The interior minister took a jibe at Khan, saying that he was a strange man who understands neither politics nor democracy.

He asked Khan to change his attitude and sit with political parties given the fact that the country is beset with devastation caused by massive flooding. He called upon Khan to come down to talks as the country’s economy was in tatters with people infuriated over electricity bills.

“Unless we provide relief to the people, the same situation will continue,” he said.

Rana Sana said that although the PMLN wanted to announce the general elections, the party had to go with the democratic opinion of other parties.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said that Imran Khan was holding talks where the matter was expected to be resolved.

Talking to a private media channel, the Punjab chief minister said, “Politics has nothing to do with the heat or cold and if the weather is hot, we will try to cool it down.”

Pervaiz Elahi went on to say that Khan’s biggest issue was the elections’ date. He added that a ray of hope was seen during the long march, while the incumbent government wanted the elections to be held after the completion of its tenure.

When Elahi was asked if the negotiations were going on and if the ISI DG needed a press conference, he declined to comment.

“Imran Khan is my leader and will do whatever he would ask,” Elahi said, adding that the PTI chairman would never tolerate thieves.

Earlier, Rana Sanaullah said during a Twitter Space session that the government had no right to prevent the PTI from staging a protest if Imran Niazi wanted to do it in a peaceful manner.

However, the government would use all its force to stop a siege of Islamabad if the PTI tried to, the interior minister warned.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said that there was always an option of dialogue in politics but it can’t be held with a foreign-funded ‘fitna’ (Imran Khan), who wanted bloodshed and chaos in the country.

Addressing a news conference, she emphasised that talks could be held with politicians but not with a foreign-funded ‘fitna’, adding there would be no talks on roads, while referring to the PTI’s long march. “Should there be talks with those who play with national interests? There will be no dialogue with those who talk about bodies and a bloody march.”

She pointed out that armed men were caught on May 25 during the PTI’s previous long march in Islamabad and warned that Imran Khan and the Punjab government would be responsible if any untoward incident happened. On the PTI chairman’s demand for early polls, she said that an election date would not be given by uttering abuses and hurling threats. She claimed Imran Khan did not want transparent elections but chaos and bloodshed in the country. “The real face of Imran Khan, his politics of lies and fake character have been exposed,” she claimed.

She reiterated the coalition government’s principled position that elections would be held on time. The minister alleged Imran used Zakat money for his own purposes and meeting political ends and asked him to reply to the damages notice of the PM and Federal Minister Khawaja Asif. “The foreign-funded fitna should respond to the defamation notices of Shehbaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif before giving a notice of damages to the Chief Election Commissioner, as Imran Khan has been absconding in Shehbaz Sharif’s Rs10 billion damages case for five years,” she noted.

The Chief Election Commissioner, she contended, was being threatened as he did not bow before him and also refused to give him an NRO in the foreign funding case. She noted the notice was being issued because the Chief Election Commissioner had brought an “arrogant, obstinate and selfish man under the ambit of law and caught his lies and fraud red-handed.”

Speaking on the post-flood situation, the minister explained that the recovery and rehabilitation process was underway after floods and the coalition government was taking measures whereas the media launched a flood awareness campaign without any compensation. She said the prime minister paid visits to flood-affected areas and himself reviewed rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities.

The minister regretted that various projects that were delayed for four years during the PTI regime were being restarted, as one person (Imran) tried his best to make the country financially bankrupt. About the price hike of commodities, the minister said the government was trying its best to bring down inflation and claimed, “We gave this incompetent person a prosperous Pakistan. Imran Khan has not talked about his performance in four years till date. He should show a single sentence on his performance. He should tell us about a single public welfare project launched by him.”

The minister maintained India was celebrating Imran Khan’s threats to the ISI and army as he had become the campaign manager of Narendra Modi, whereas his conspiracy of regime change narrative flopped due to his audio leaks.

Meanwhile, PTI Senior Vice-President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain claimed that the reports of the government’s invitation of dialogue were not serious, as on one hand, PTI workers were being arrested while on the other, curbs had been placed on the coverage of the long march. “The report of constitution of a non-serious committee is only to engage the Azadi march,” he added.

Such cleverness will not work, give the date for elections. Most disappointment is due to Rana Sanaullah’s behaviour. What had happened to Rana Sahib himself and Pervaiz Rashid? Today these people are torturing people and stripping them naked. At least he should have been clear about this abuse. I had condemned this act even then and I am standing against such cheap tactics even today,” he tweeted.