PTI shirking from giving written demands: Siddiqui

ISLAMABAD: New questions have arisen on the govt-PTI negotiations after Asad Qaiser — the PTI’s central leader and a member of the negotiating committee — avoided furnishing their demands in black and white.

In an interview with a private TV, Asad said, “The things we said during the meetings have become ‘minutes’ and should be considered as written demands. Giving or not giving papers is a formality.”

When contacted, the government negotiating committee’s spokesman Senator Irfan Siddiqui said in the last two rounds, the PTI had committed furnishing their written demands but now they were saying that the minutes of the last meeting should be considered as their written demands.

“If they do not give us their demands in black and white, how the government will know about them and how the thing will move forward,” he said.

He said there were also coalition partners of the government in the negotiating committee and when the government side will have the PTI’s written demands, the same would be placed before them for their input.

He called on the PTI to submit a written charter of demands, as agreed to in the communiqué from the previous meetings, to ensure clarity and avoid misunderstandings.

He said the government was facilitating the PTI leaders to meet Imran in jail for consultation so that they could come up with their demands in the meeting.

Siddiqui said the PTI’s frequent changes in statements risked derailing the dialogue process.

He was hopeful that in the third round expected in the coming week, PTI will come up with its written demands. He emphasized that the government engaged in the talks openly and urged the PTI to refrain from making contradictory remarks.

Mumtaz Alvi adds: The PTI negotiating committee is unlikely to meet with Imran Khan on Monday (today). The seven-member committee, headed by the Leader of Opposition Omar Ayub Khan, was expected to consult and take guidelines from the party supremo today but now there appears hardly any chance owing to lack of intimation from the government in this connection.

“There will be no meeting of our committee with Imran Khan on Monday, as the government, which is facilitating such meetings, has not given any intimation hitherto in this regard,” confirmed PTI Information Secretary Sh. Waqas Akram.

Following its consultations with the party founder, the committee will furnish its demands in detail and present them to the government-formed committee during their meeting within three or four days.

When his attention was drawn to the PMLN senior leader Senator Irfan Siddiqui’s statement a day earlier that the delay in bringing its demands in writing in the next meeting might create difficulties in the dialogue process, he said how the PTI committee could do so until getting access to their incarcerated leader.

Before their next meeting, the opposition committee had sought time and a meeting with Imran Khan. However, it was mutually agreed that the two committees will have a huddle within a few days.

Separately, the Sunni Ittehad Council Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza, who is the PTI committee’s spokesman, said Imran had spoken of ending negotiations if the demands were not met. Talking to a private news channel, Hamid Raza explained that Imran had called for a judicial inquiry into the events of May 9 and November 26 and release of undertrial party leaders and workers.

He emphasized that if even one of these two demands was not accepted by the government, then the negotiations may end, as directed by the party founder.