Pakistan: Khan will be loser if talks on poll date fail, say govt leaders

Government and opposition leaders in Pakistan cast doubts on the success of ongoing negotiations to break the impasse over holding of elections in the country.

Leaders from Pakistan’s ruling coalition and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are set to resume talks in Islamabad on Tuesday to evolve consensus on holding elections across the country simultaneously.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who is also a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), expressed doubts about the sincerity of the Imran Khan-led PTI. In comments to media he said opposition was just making arguments for the sake of arguments.

Asif asked what will be the result of the negotiations with the PTI as they are setting conditions.

He also criticised Imran Khan’s decision to hold rallies against the government at a time when his party was holding talks with the ruling coalition.

Similarly, PTI leader Asad Umar said that the government’s intentions are not good about the negotiations.

Speaking to media, Umar said that the PTI was holding negotiations at the suggestion of the Supreme Court.

He also accused the ruling coalition of pushing the country towards a “dangerous situation”.

The ruling coalition also warned the former premier that his PTI party will be the “ultimate loser” if the parleys failed as the polls can be delayed for a year. It also described as ”impractical” Khan’s demand that the National Assembly be dissolved by May 14 for a successful outcome of talks.

“We want to tell Imran Khan that he cannot hold talks at gunpoint. The first condition of talks is, there are no pre-conditions. Khan is so desperate that he wants his way or the highway,” PML-N Secretary-General and Federal Minister for Development Ahsan Iqbal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.

The ruling coalition asked Khan to be more flexible for the success of this dialogue , the report said on Monday.

“If the talks fail, the ultimate loser will be the PTI as there is a provision for delaying elections for a year under the Constitution. Imran Khan has warned of creating a law and order situation in the country (if polls are not held this July) and in such a scenario, the elections will be delayed for another year,” Iqbal said.

The coalition parties sat with the PTI with an ‘open mind’, but Khan continued to ask for the dissolution of assemblies (National, Sindh and Balochistan) by May 14,  he said, adding that the demand is not acceptable to the coalition.

“The people of Sindh and Balochistan cannot be punished for the folly of Imran Khan who dissolved Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies to force elections…under the patronage of his ‘handlers’ in the institutions,” the minister said, adding that Khan’s PTI party would have to agree on a code of conduct for polls, besides the same-day elections.

When asked if the elections would be held in Punjab in May in light of the Supreme Court’s order in case of no breakthrough in parleys, the minister said: “We clearly see politics behind this apex court’s verdict.”

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which pushed the PML-N to hold parleys with the PTI on elections, however, is still optimistic.

“I hope that dissolution of the assemblies by May 14 is a proposal and not a condition set by Khan. This suggestion is not viable. Who will present the budget if the National Assembly is dissolved in May?” asked senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira.

“It cannot be left to the caretaker setup to negotiate with the IMF and present the budget (for the upcoming financial year),” he said.

Kaira said despite such a suggestion, the PPP believed better sense would prevail and that these talks would not end up in failure.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, who recently called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Imran Khan to push them for a consensus on polls, said: “We are hopeful for a breakthrough in the dialogue and that both the federal coalition and the PTI will not head for a deadlock.”

“PTI wants the success of talks with the government, but it has formulated a strategy in case of failure. It is not possible for the PTI to sit silently if the Constitution is considered as a piece of trash and the public as insects,” PTI senior leader Fawad Chaudhry said in a tweet.

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