National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will chair a closed-door meeting between the negotiating teams representing the federal government and the PTI on January 2, a notification from the NA secretariat read out on Monday.
This will be the second meeting between the negotiating parties, in which the PTI’s demands for the release of imprisoned party workers and the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the events of May 9, 2023 and November 26 will be discussed.
According to the notification, a copy of which is available with dawn.comSadiq “will chair a second meeting (behind closed doors) on the negotiations between Treasury and the Opposition on Thursday 2 January 2025 at 11.30am” at Parliament House.
The January 2 date was earlier announced when on December 26, Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza announced that the PTI would formally give the government time until January 31 to conclude the ongoing negotiations.
“The deadline for negotiations is January 31,” Raza said. “On January 2, when our committee meets with the government to continue negotiations, (opposition leader in the National Assembly) Omar Ayub will formally give them this deadline.”
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said he was not opposed to negotiations in an interview today in Geographic news program ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, but questioned the PTI leadership’s change of approach in the talks, from rejection to acceptance.
“I would like to know how this change came about. This is a complete U-turn. “I have every right to suspect that there is a method to this madness and I see a lack of sincerity in this,” he said of the entire process.
Since the imprisonment of PTI founder Imran Khan last year over several cases, his party’s relationship with the government as well as the establishment has turned extremely sour. The PTI has held several protests over the past year, most of which descended into violence after facing state repression.
After the PTI’s show of power and reports of deaths of supporters, tensions rose, leading to calls to ban the party. However, Imran formed a committee for talks and his lawmakers softened their stance.
Following a recommendation by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also formed a committee and talks between the parties began to ease tensions.
