With the political impasse continuing among the country’s main stakeholders, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah said on Friday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had not imposed any “minus Imran” condition on political engagement.
A day earlier, the premier’s adviser had proposed “confidence-building measures” between the leadership of the PML-N, the PTI, and the PPP could bring down political temperatures.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz has not set any condition of minus Imran Khan [from politics]. We neither seek to minus anyone nor consider it politically viable. Similar efforts were made to sideline us in the past,” Sanaullah said while speaking on Geo News programme Naya Pakistan.
As the leader of the House, PM Shehbaz has offered negotiations to the opposition, saying they [PTI] should sit with him as dialogue is key to parliamentary democracy, Sanaullah added.
Maintaining that the opposition PTI had to take a step forward, the senior PML-N leader said that dialogue on behalf of the president, the PML-N supremo and the establishment was the premier’s “responsibility”.
“The PM has invited the opposition to meet in the National Assembly chamber if they do not want to visit [his office],” he added.
When asked about the statement he made a day earlier, Sanaullah said the prime minister must have taken Nawaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari and the establishment in to confidence before extending the offer of dialogue to the opposition.
Sanaullah added that despite efforts by Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) and PTI’s second- and third-tier leadership to initiate talks, nothing could materialise unless “Imran Khan’s policy changes in favour of dialogue”.
The PM’s adviser noted that the PTI founder had not authorised anyone to hold negotiations, adding that his message, conveyed by his sister Aleema Khan, was that “anyone who talks about negotiations is not among us”.
“He sent a message of street agitation and a wheel-jam strike, and also asked Sohail Afridi to visit Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh for mobilisation,” he said, reiterating that Imran was the sole “hindrance” in negotiations.
Earlier in December, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reiterated his offer for talks with the opposition but also emphasised that dialogue between the two sides could only proceed on “legitimate matters”.
At a recent national conference, organised by the TTAP alliance, participants had agreed that the door for dialogue must never be closed in a democracy.
The same day, political leaders, including ruling PML-N stalwarts, from across the spectrum called for dialogue and restraint to achieve stability in the country, saying that political confrontation was causing instability and violence.
The matter of talks between the opposition, mainly the PTI, and the government has been in the news since last year.
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