SHARIF ADDRESSES UN SESSION: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressing a high-level summit on strengthening international peace operations during the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York yesterday.

Internews

Islamabad

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is unlikely to approach the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) for resumption of talks after parliamentary parties urged him not to contact them unless the protesters themselves express their willingness to restart it.

These parties told Sharif that since the PTI and the PAT had unilaterally terminated the talks, they should show readiness for their revival if they were sincere to resolve the contentious issues through peaceful means.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Senator Aitzaz Ahsan also confirmed this in an interview.

These parties wanted the PTI and the PAT to come down from their high-flying position and realise the usefulness of the talks. They even asked the government not to take any step, accepting any demand of the PTI or the PAT, till the time the dialogue resumes.

As separate parleys were progressing with the PTI and the PAT, they individually announced to finish the exercise saying that it would be resumed only after their arrested workers were released. Almost all the activists of the two parties have since been freed either on court orders or by the government itself.

But Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri seem unwilling to restart the talks despite the release of their workers.

Since the government no longer faces any major pressure from the sit-ins, it is following the policy of letting these protests die a natural death.

The only hope left for revival of the parleys is the political ‘jirga’ comprising senior leaders of parliamentary parties. It has announced that it will hold talks only with Imran Khan.

“Although the actual parleys will have to be held between the government and the PTI or the PAT, we will accept the efforts being made by the jirga if these lead to recommencement of the dialogue,” said a federal minister, who is privy to the exercise.

He said that in any negotiations, both sides have to follow the policy of give and take.

“We pursued this path. Parleys can’t succeed if Imran Khan continues to harshly slam the government and keeps saying that whatever the outcome of the talks, he would not end his sit-in without squeezing the prime minister’s resignation,” the minister said.

 

 

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