PRESIDENT Dr Arif Alvi has once again spoken his mind on important issues agitating the minds of the political parties and the general public including early polls, talks between the Government and the Opposition and the apprehensions about arrest of former Prime Minister and PTI chief Imran Khan.
Speaking to journalists at Governor House in Lahore on Thursday, hea expressed fears that arrest of the PTI leader would spark severe backlash across the country and emphasized the need for engagement between the two sides.
Contrary to the general belief, the President maintained that Imran Khan was not against talks but there was complete silence from the Government side.
There is absolutely no doubt that the issues facing the country can be addressed only through a comprehensive dialogue not just between the Government and the Opposition but also among all the stakeholders.
The President tried his best to bring the Government and the Opposition on the negotiating table and might be in the know of things that others do not know and, therefore, there is no reason to doubt his version of what happened behind the curtains.
Without disputing the claims of the President that IK was not against talks, one would point out that the public posture of the PTI leader conveyed the opposite impression.
Imran Khan demonstrated his aversion to talks with the opposition when he was Prime Minister and instead preferred to dub all of them thieves and corrupt elements.
He also publicly and repeatedly opposed the notion of engagement with the Government after he lost the power in a vote of no-confidence.
It is an open secret that PTI always attached conditions to the talks and wanted to have talks on the one point agenda of early elections without realizing the sensitivities of the other side.
It is because of the inflexible position of the PTI leadership on the issue of early elections that now they fear even delay in holding of elections in Punjab and KP where assemblies were dissolved to force premature elections.
Politics is the art of “give and take” and extreme policies do not always yield the desired results and, therefore, politicians must review their attitude.
As for the President’s opposition to the so-called ‘minus-one’ formula, this was wrong in the past and would not be appropriate now but why was there complete silence when the formula was applied on Mian Nawaz Sharif besides jailing numerous opposition leaders on flimsy grounds.
The only solution to the complicated scenario is strict adherence to the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution and Parliament.
