PM Shehbaz says ready to hold talks with opposition

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday invited the opposition political parties to join heads for a dialogue to discuss the ways to take the country ahead, ARY News reported.

“Let us sit together to take the country ahead. Let us talk for the betterment of the country. There is no other way forward,” the prime minister said addressing the National Assembly here.

He recalled that in the past too, he had invited the political parties to evolve a consensus on a Charter of Economy but that idea was ridiculed just for political point scoring.

The prime minister also recounted his ordeal of facing victimisation and that he was in jail when his mother passed away.

He said that despite being a cancer survivor and with a backbone issue, he used to be taken to courts on the ordinary prison van just to exacerbate the condition, but he never complained.

READ: PTI founder accepts SC’s advice to hold talks with political parties

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that other PML-N leaders also faced humiliating treatment despite being the under-trial prisoners.

But he said, having faced all the victimization, he would never desire his political adversaries to face a similar situation.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of Pakistan also advised PTI founder Imran Khan to initiate dialogue with politicians, as Imran Khan spoke in the court regarding accountability laws.

However, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar said that party founder Imran Khan was willing to engage in negotiations, but refuses to hold talks with politicians he terms ‘mandate thieves’.

Barrister Gohar alleged that the government has filed over 200 fake cases against the PTI chairman, who has been in jail for the past 11 months without any conviction.