Govt doesn’t take it seriously, Tarar on PTI’s deadline for talks

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) January 31 deadline for the result-oriented talks, Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Thursday that the federal government “does not take it seriously”, terming it a “face-saving” attempt.

Earlier Thursday, the PTI negotiation committee set the deadline for the government after meeting its party founder in Adiala jail, reiterating the demands of judicial probe into the May 9 riots and November 26 late-night crackdown and release of “political prisoners”.

“PTI founder [Imran Khan] is ready to forgive everyone for all the ill-treatment he has suffered for the sake of Pakistan,” Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza said while speaking to journalists after the meeting.

Raza, who is also a part of the PTI’s dialogue team, also noted that the first phase of civil disobedience movement, ‘boycott of remittances’, would remain in place despite talks with the government.

Tarar, speaking on Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath”, claimed that the Imran Khan-founded party was issuing ultimatums to the government for “face-saving” as it suffered back-to-back “political defeats”.

Responding to a question, he claimed that the PTI’s call to the overseas Pakistanis to stop sending remittances would meet the same fate as its “final call” protest in Islamabad last month.

He went on to say that such calls would not make any difference as the former ruling party faced back-to-back failures on several occasions including the 26th Constitutional Amendment and “do-or-die” protest.

To another question, the federal minister categorically rejected that the incarcerated PTI founder had been offered any deal wherein he would be placed under house arrest or move to a prison in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party is in power.