Pakistan PM's aide Sanaullah blames Imran Khan's party for ending talks with govt

While speaking in Geo News programme "Geo Pakistan", he said, "The government cannot be held responsible. We entered the dialogue and still want to continue, but there is a way of holding talks. It has always been that one of the parties gives their charter of demands and the other responds to it. The issues are then framed and discussed."

His remarks came after PTI founder Imran Khan called off talks with the government over its failure to constitute a judicial commission within the promised seven-day time period. The talks aimed to de-escalate political tensions began between PTI and PML-N-led government in December and so far, three round of negotiations have taken place.

Pakistan PM's aide Rana Sanaullah stated that the government had asked PTI to give it seven working days to respond to their demands, which means until January 28. He said that the government's negotiation committee expected to hold another meeting with PTI on the said date and was planning to present its response on its demands. However, it appeared like Imran Khan-founded party felt that they had "made a mistake" by entering the process of talks with the government.

Sanaullah said, "They [PTI] desperately wanted to exit the talks through whatever excuse they can make and now they have escaped even before the completion of the timeframe that they themselves had agreed upon. So the responsibility is theirs."

When asked whether the government was flexible to convince PTI founder to hold direct meeting with high-level government official for negotiations, he expressed willingness to hold the talks but not to win over anyone or to follow orders of anyone.

He emphasised that democracy progressed with talks instead of deadlock. He expressed confidence that the issues between the opposition and the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N)-led government would be resolved only when the political parties came together on a table, Geo News reported.

He said that Imran Khan-founded party did not allow resolving the issue while staying in the government for four years and was trying to do same again. According to him, PTI might become irrelevant if they keep trying the same. However, he noted that the issue could never be resolved like this.

Sanaullah ruled out the possibility that Imran Khan-founded party called-off talks due to the "restoration" of their long-desired "direct channel" in the wake of "another window" open simultaneously for PTI. He said that the government had made sure that there was "no other window".

He further said, "Any dialogue, discussion, settlement or agreement on political issues is supposed to take place between the political forces only, or the opposition and the government. Those they [PTI] are looking up to won't have any discussion on any political agenda, as it has been clarified earlier. If they [PTI] still have any kind of confusion, it will be cleared in the coming days."

He said that government did not seek agitation. However, it would not allow the PTI to hold march in Islamabad to protest again, Geo News reported. He said, "They [PTI] have accepted Parliament after the general elections and claimed the opposition benches. They want to be in the parliament, enjoy the privileges and protest all at the same time." (ANI)