The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has again announced to start a long march from today keeping in view the slow-paced negotiations between the PTI and the government teams as both sides have refused to budge from their respective stances, making chances of the success of the talks even slimmer.
The PTI long march announcement was made by senior party leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry in his tweet posted on Sunday.
Fawad is a part of three-member PTI team which is currently holding parleys with the government team over the issue of elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In his tweet, Fawad wrote: “Tehreek-i-Insaf wants the success of the negotiations, but it has formulated a strategy in case of failure. It cannot be possible that the constitution is considered as a piece of garbage and the people as insects and the Tehreek-i-Insaf sits silently. People, get ready for a big movement in case the talks falter. The movement is starting from tomorrow with rallies in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, and the movement will be culminated in a historic long march.”
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government and the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are set to hold the “final” round of talks on May 2 (Tuesday) after the former ruled out the possibility of a deadlock between the sides.
Following the second round of talks — which was held Friday in Senate’s Committee Room — the sides decided to consult with their top leadership and allies over the proposals presented during the meeting. Both delegations were hopeful of concluding the talks on Tuesday, but PTI warned that the talks could “derail” at any point if the law enforcers kept arresting its workers.
However, the police and Anti-Corruption Establishment’ raid on former Punjab chief minister and PTI President Ch Pervaiz Elahi on Friday night has further dimmed the prospects of the success of talks.
Though the PTI in its meeting on Saturday chaired by Chairman Imran Khan decided to continue talks with the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s government despite all odds, but there seems a remote chance that the parleys would bear fruit.
“The PTI’s negotiating team will meet the government’s team for the third round on Tuesday (May 2) and present its demand to dissolve the National Assembly before May 14, otherwise [PTI] will go ahead with the Punjab general elections as per Supreme Court’s order,” Khan said and added the PTI would also approach the apex court for earliest general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the constitutional time frame of 90 days had already passed.
