Islamabad: The ruling coalition — the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — seems to have been divided into two camps over the matter of holding talks with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), it emerged on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a meeting of the PDM — an alliance of 13 political parties — on Tuesday to discuss the country’s political situation and Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) bid to bring both sides to the negotiation table.
During the huddle, there was a disagreement among the parties over holding talks with the opposition party. Some parties maintained that political forces shouldn’t block channels for dialogue, while others insisted that PTI Chairman Imran Khan could not be trusted.
On the one hand, the JUI-F and Jamhoori Watan Party are said to be adamantly opposed to the notion, while the Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is claimed to be in favour of talks with the opposition party on the matter of national importance.
It is important to note that both the PPP and the PTI constituted three-member committees last week to hold political dialogue.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) set up a three-person committee, comprised of Senator Yousuf Raza Gillani, Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, and PM’s Advisor on Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira to persuade allies in the government to begin a dialogue process with the PTI.
Earlier, former president and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari also called on all political parties to sit together and develop a consensus on a single-point agenda for elections.
Similarly, the former ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also constituted a three-member committee to get out of the ongoing political quagmire by pursuing dialogue.
The development followed a meeting of Chairman PTI Imran Khan and Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq when the latter called on the former prime minister at his residence in Lahore on Saturday last week.
According to a statement, PTI leaders Pervaiz Khattak, Ejaz Chaudhry, and Mian Mehmood ur Rasheed will hold a dialogue with Jamaat-e-Islami.
