After the PTI called off dialogue with the government, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday said his doors remain open, and expressed hopes that the government and the opposition would hold talks to find a way forward. Talks between the government and the PTI commenced in the last week of December to bring down political temperatures, but despite weeks of negotiations, the dialogue process stalled on major issues — the formation of two judicial commissions and the release of PTI prisoners. 

After the PTI last week called off talks with the government, citing a delay in the latter’s response to its demands presented in the third meeting, the government committee’s spokesperson, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, yesterday indicated ending the dialogue if the opposition skipped today’s moot.  While speaking to the media regarding the fourth round of talks, Sadiq said: “This committee has come together today. We waited for about 45 minutes for our friends in the opposition to come. 

“We messaged the secretary to leader of the opposition who said ‘it seems like they won’t be coming to the meeting’. We have it saved.” He went on to say: “We were hoping that negotiations are the only way to proceed”, and noted that the prime minister formed a negotiating committee the same day PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar made the request. “We were hoping that they [PTI] would come today and the dialogue could advance. But because the dialogue cannot proceed in their absence, there is no need to further speak about or continue this meeting.

“My doors remain open. I again express hopes for the government and the opposition to hold talks to find a way forward. “In negotiations, you don’t put forward conditions first — you sit [for talks] and negotiate, where decisions are made on what is accepted and what isn’t, whether there is an alternate proposal.” Deputy Prime Minister Senator Ishaq Dar said while speaking to the media in Islamabad that the government had come to the meeting with an answer to the PTI’s demands.

 “We had prepared for the talks; I wish they had come,” he said, noting that the talks are within the ambit of the constitution. He added his hopes that the opposition would contact the National Assembly Speaker and attend the committee meeting. ’We do not want to make any unilateral statement.“ While speaking to the media outside Parliament House, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was asked whether the negotiating committee would be dissolved if PTI did not attend the talks.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)