Govt negotiating committee to brief PM on talks with opposition

ISLAMABAD: The government’s negotiating committee will meet Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday (today) to brief about the meeting with the opposition, citing sources ARY News reported.

Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, who heads the government committee, will brief the prime minister about the talks with the opposition’s Rehbar Committee on the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl’s (JUI-F) upcoming ‘Azadi March’.

The government committee’s head had already inform the premier about the deadlock in the talks.

The committee will also consult over the future line of action in the meeting and will finalize the strategy to tackle the issue, sources said.

The members of the negotiating committee are expected to address a press conference after the meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, sources added.

It is to be mentioned here that two rounds of talks between the government’s negotiation committee and the opposition’s Rehbar Committee on the JUI-F upcoming ‘Azadi March‘ remained inconclusive on Friday.

Speaking at a joint press conference after talks in the federal capital, Pervez Khattak said the two sides couldn’t reach a decision due to which they agreed to hold more rounds of talks.

He said recommendations put forward by both sides were deliberated upon in the meeting.

JUI-F leader Akram Durrani, who is the convenor of the opposition body, said two rounds of talks took place today but remained inconclusive.

He said they decided to continue the dialogue process but no timeframe in this regard was decided.

The seven-member government committee comprised Khattak, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, MNA Asad Umar, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

Whereas, the opposition committee included Durrani, JUP leader Awais Noorani, PPP’s Nayyar Bukhari and Farhatullah Babar, PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal and former speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Awami National Party’s Mian Iftikhar Hussain and others.