DESPITE apprehensions by different circles, the process of talks between the government and the opposition PTI entered its third round on Thursday when the latter presented a Charter of Demands in a written format, removing one of the hurdles in the way of the dialogue process. The demands include formation of two judicial commissions on May 09 and November 26 incidents and “support” of the federal and provincial governments in bail, sentence suspensions and acquittals of “political prisoners” identified by the PTI. The Government side has confirmed that it will respond to the demands within seven days and the government position will determine the future of the talks.
The Charter of Demands has carefully been drafted as no direct demand has been made for the release of the founding Chairman of the party Imran Khan, which has all along remained one of the main concerns of the PTI. However, the language of the demand pertaining to political prisoners is meaningful as the party has called upon the federal government, as well as the governments of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, to “support, in accordance with the law, the grant of bails or orders suspending the conviction and sentence of all political prisoners” arrested pursuant to “one or more FIRs registered with respect to any event on May 9, 2023 or any event on November 24 to 27, 2024 or any other political event anywhere”. The words ‘all’ political prisoners and that the cases registered with respect to ‘any other political event anywhere’ and their identification by the PTI could effectively mean inclusion of IK and other PTI leaders now in different jail. However, it is a big question mark whether or not the required ‘support’ of the federal and provincial governments would be forthcoming as the prisoners considered ‘political’ by the PTI are dubbed as ‘criminals’ by the government side. The party has also threatened that there would be no further progress in talks until and unless its demands for the formation of judicial commissions, led by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, are formed to probe May 09 and November 26 incidents.
The formation of the judicial commissions might not be a big issue but the fact that the PTI also wants its own terms of reference for these commissions might create hurdles in acceptance of the demand. Otherwise too, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah, while reacting to the demand, said the two incidents have already been investigated and can’t be reopened. He also maintained that the PTI has stepped back from one of its main demands – return of electoral mandate and this is also confirmed by the letter containing demands of the party. The letter stated that the demands were presented as a “prerequisite to wider negotiations with respect to the restoration of the Constitution, the rule of law and respect for the people’s mandate, free and fair elections”. This shows the party has, for the time being, withdrawn its main demand and wants its inclusion during ‘wider negotiations’ at some point in future. The latest round of talks was held in the backdrop of reports that Chairman PTI Barrister Gauhar Khan and KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gundapur had a ‘positive’ meeting with the Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir during his recent visit to Peshawar, where he interacted with the political leadership on the issue of terrorism. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has formed a committee composed of representatives of the ruling party and its allies to draft response to the Charter of Demands and hopefully the collective wisdom will find a way out of the prevailing messy situation. Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who chaired the third round, urged the two sides to agree on a charter of economy as well but this can happen only if effective steps are taken to mitigate the political tension.
