Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal has claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had sought the assistance of the ‘neutrals’ in brokering talks with the government ahead of the party’s long march.
According to a report by Geo, Iqbal said that the meeting between the two sides was kept concealed at the request of the PTI, until late evening yesterday. “PTI sent a message through the ‘third party’ that they wanted to talk to us and negotiate,” he said.
However, the occurrence of such a meeting has been denied both by PTI Chairperson Imran Khan, as well as the incumbent government’s Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb.
Later in the evening though, Minister for Economic Affairs Ayaz Sadiq confirmed to Geo that the meeting had indeed taken place, but had been kept under wraps on PTI’s insistence.
While this meeting was taking place yesterday afternoon, PTI caravans were moving towards Islamabad to take part in Khan’s ‘long march for true freedom’.
The government representatives present at the meeting included Iqbal, Ayaz Sadiq, Malik Muhammad Khan, and a few others, while PTI was represented by Pervez Khattak, Asad Umar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Iqbal said that the PTI had just one demand throughout the meeting. “They kept saying you announce a date today, even if it is for election in October and we will go back,” adding that this was the only point that PTI kept bringing forward.
The planning minister said that the government team was not ready to announce elections ‘on gunpoint’, and refused their request.
“We even told them that what you want [immediate polls], we are almost ready to do on our own,” Iqbal explained, “We were even trying to convince our allies. But when the PTI gave this call [of the long march] that is when we decided that this is non-negotiable. We cannot surrender to blackmailing.”
As a counter offer, the government proposed that if PTI immediately calls off the long march, the government would announce that talks are taking place between the two. They also offered to negotiate new polling dates with PTI if it agreed to call off the long march and come back to parliament
The two parties were not able to reach an agreement, however on Thursday morning, Khan called off the long march, and issued the government a 6-day ultimatum to announce election dates, or else he will return to Islamabad with ‘the entire nation’.
