PTI responds to PM Shehbaz’s dialogue offer

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has tabled a condition for talks with the PML-N government after Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif extended olive branch to political rival Imran Khan, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Speaking on the National Assembly (NA) floor, Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan said that the government must release all political prisoners, including PTI founder Imran Khan, before any negotiations can take place.

Ayub said that the government’s offer of talks is not sincere, and that the government should first release all detained political leaders and workers. He emphasised that only then can meaningful dialogue take place.

Earlier in the day, PM Shehbaz Sharif invited the opposition to join heads for a dialogue to discuss the ways to take the country ahead.

“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.

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 victimisation, he would never desire his political adversaries to face a similar situation.

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

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.