PML-N’s Irfan Siddiqui says negotiation process ‘practically’ at an end amid PTI’s absence from 4th round

PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui said on Tuesday that the negotiation process with the PTI was “practically” at an end after the opposition party skipped today’s fourth round of meetings.

Talks between the government and the PTI commenced in the last week of December to bring down political temperatures, but despite weeks of negotiations, the dialogue process stalled on major issues — the formation of two judicial commissions and the release of PTI prisoners.

Senator Siddiqui, the government committee’s spokesperson, had indicated a day ago of ending the dialogue if the opposition skipped today’s moot after the PTI called off talks with the government last week, citing a delay in the latter’s response to its demands presented in the third meeting.

Speaking to the media today outside Parliament House after the PTI skipped today’s meeting, Siddiqui said: “Since they (PTI) didn’t come, the negotiation process has practically ended. However, our [negotiating] committee is still there and it has not been dissolved.”

He continued, “If they can approach the speaker by their deadline of January 31 or they think this door should be opened again and this process should resume then they can contact the speaker and our committee will still sit down and talk to them before the 31st or even after that date we can continue this process.”

“But as far as today is concerned, they decided on their own on the 23rd, five days before the 28th, and unilaterally announced [abandoning the process] giving various reasons for it.

“Sometimes they said that first make the commission … then they said that police raided one of their committee member’s house, all of this was baseless and they just wanted to end the process.”

He added that PTI must have other priorities, saying: “The process that they started, they themselves have now finished by sabotaging the process.”

Siddiqui added that the government “took this process forward with a lot of patience as the other side called for civil disobedience … and did very scary tweets that included attacks on the armed forces, the prime minister was abused but we tolerated that”, adding that the onus was on the other side now to approach the speaker to restart the process.

He added that three committee meetings took place and after 42 days PTI gave their demands, saying “We only asked for seven working days and did comprehensive work during those days, we did two to three meetings, called lawyers and impartial legal experts to understand how much space can be given to them according to their demands — we tried for that.”

“We remained focused on our final answer that we won’t share publicly since it had been decided that it was a committee-to-committee matter and they didn’t come,” Siddiqui said, adding that PTI could have shared what their disagreements were in the meeting.

“That could helped resolve things, we could have always done another meeting based on the responses as well to see if things are moving forward or not as there is still time in their deadline of Jan 31,” he added.

Siddiqui said the PTI disrespected National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and the government committee with its conduct. He said the committee would no longer expect the PTI to come or was waiting for it and nor would it take any message to the opposition party to attend talks.

The PML-N senator added that the committee would consider its next plan of action if the PTI reconsidered its decision.

Meanwhile, Sadiq said his doors remained open and expressed hopes that the opposition would hold talks to find a way forward.

Speaking to the media regarding the fourth round of talks, Sadiq said: “This committee has come together today. We waited for about 45 minutes for our friends in the opposition to come.

“We messaged the secretary to leader of the opposition who said ‘it seems like they won’t be coming to the meeting’. We have it saved.”

He added: “We were hoping that negotiations are the only way to proceed”, pointing out that the prime minister formed a negotiating committee the same day PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar made the request.

“We were hoping that they [PTI] would come today and the dialogue could advance. But because the dialogue cannot proceed in their absence, there is no need to further speak about or continue this meeting.

“My doors remain open. I again express hopes for the government and the opposition to hold talks to find a way forward.

“In negotiations, you don’t put forward conditions first — you sit [for talks] and negotiate, where decisions are made on what is accepted and what isn’t, whether there is an alternate proposal.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar said while speaking to the media in Islamabad that the government had come to the meeting with an answer to the PTI’s demands.

“We had prepared for the talks; I wish they had come,” he said, noting that the talks are within the ambit of the constitution.

He added his hopes that the opposition would contact the National Assembly Speaker and attend the committee meeting. ’We do not want to make any unilateral statement.“

While speaking to the media outside Parliament House, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was asked whether the negotiating committee would be dissolved if PTI did not attend the talks.

“No one can predict the dissolution of the negotiating committee,” he said. “They have refused to sit in on the talks, so this is a futile exercise.”

He added, however, that it was a separate matter if the government negotiating committee wanted to wait for the PTI.

The minister was asked by the media whether the avenues for negotiations seemed to be closing, to which he replied that closing doors for talks was against democracy.

“Some solution comes out in every situation,” he responded.

The PTI had made its participation in today’s meeting conditional to the formation of judicial commissions to probe the May 9 and November 26 incidents.

A report in today’s The News quoted members of the government’s negotiating team as saying they have something to offer the PTI if they attend the talks. PML-N Rana Sanaullah said: “Neither will we reject their demands outright nor will we accept them entirely. We will offer them some room to proceed further.”

According to Siddiqui, the response to the PTI’s charter of demands would not be made public in case the opposition party skipped the meeting. The government committee, however, will attend the in-camera session in either case.

The PML-N leader also called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday to apprise him about the dialogue with the PTI.

The senator urged the PTI to attend the meeting so that progress could be made on its demands for the formation of judicial commissions and the release of political prisoners.

He recalled that an agreement had been reached between the PTI and the government in which the government was given seven working days to share its response to the PTI demands with the NA speaker. “We have prepared our replies but will not make them public in case the PTI does not attend the meeting,” he added.

On the other hand, the PTI was not going to attend the meeting being held today, according to Omar Ayub, the opposition leader in the National Assembly.

However, the party later showed a little flexibility in its stance and said the opposition committee could attend the meeting if the government arranged a meeting of its members with ex-premier Imran Khan before January 28. However, any meeting did not materialise.

PTI says talks only with govt, ‘not anywhere else’

Addressing the media in Islamabad earlier today, Barrister Gohar said the PTI had already made it clear that it was not sitting down for talks for “hi hello or photo sessions”, adding that the government had still not announced the commissions as the party had demanded.

Reiterating his message in a later talk with the media, Barrister Gohar asserted that the only talks being held were with the government committee “and not anywhere else”.

He said it was “unfortunate” that talks could not proceed, adding that the PTI had approached the endeavour with “an open heart”.