Ruling allies ‘disagree’ over talks with PTI

Ruling allies ‘disagree’ over talks with PTI. A meeting of the members of the ruling coalition held on Tuesday to mull over talks with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), following the Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) bid to bring both sides to the negotiation table, ended without reaching a consensus, reported by a private news channel.

The alliance of 13 political parties — known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — met in Islamabad after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a meeting to discuss the political situation and the JI’s efforts.

During the meeting, a disagreement took place among the parties in the coalition government over holding talks with the opposition party as some believed that PTI Chairman Imran Khan could not be trusted, while others insisted that political forces should not shut channels for negotiations.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari stressed holding dialogue with the opposition, with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Balochistan National Party, Balochistan Awami Party, Chaudhry Salik, and Mohsin Dawar backing him, sources said.

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The PPP chairman said closing the door for talks is against his party’s principles and “undemocratic”.

“It is the need of the hour that the path of dialogue be adopted and the country taken out of the crisis,” Bilawal said.

But representatives of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Jamhoori Wattan Party (JWP) rejected Bilawal’s opinion and said that it isn’t in the coalition’s interests to hold talks with the deposed prime minister — who was ousted from the office via a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly in April last year.

“Imran Khan isn’t a political force; we oppose holding dialogue with him,” the JUI-F opined, while JWP’s Shahzain Bugti said that his party did not oppose talks but “Imran is a liar”.

Bugti added that the PTI chairman is “untrustworthy”.