ISLAMABAD - Encouraged by the flexibility shown by both the government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Political Jirga members have geared up their efforts to bring both the sides back on negotiations table to pave the way for a negotiated settlement of the political imbroglio.
Interaction with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders reflected that both the sides wanted to restart the stalled negotiation process with the aim to reach some mutually acceptable solution.
It was in this backdrop that PML-N leader Kh. Saad Rafique had held a meeting with Jamaat-i-Islami Amir and head of Political Jirga Sirajul Haq a couple of days back at Jamaat-i-Islami headquarters at Mansoora, Lahore, and discussed the possibility of talks’ resumption with PTI on certain conditions including the demand of withdrawal of Prime Minister’s resignation.
Political sources aware of the developments taking place on this front informed The Nation that Siraj had assured the PML-N leader that he would convince Imran Khan to withdraw the resignation demand of the PM or his detachment from the slot till the completion of the audit of the 2013 general elections.
A member of Political Jirga who preferred not to be named informed that the Jirga would be meeting again in a next few days in the Federal Capital and then once again they would try to meet Prime Minister and PTI Chairman before facilitating the final round of negotiation. Previously, after the suspension of talks between the government and PTI, the Political Jirga made serious efforts to put the negotiations process back on track but despite several attempts the Political Jirga members could not meet the Prime Minister, showing the government’s indifference to carry forward the negotiation process.
But the fresh call by PTI to bring people in great number to the federal capital on November 30 and the fissures within the ruling PML-N have brought the govt under pressure and forced it to search for some negotiated settlement of the issue, as Imran was not ready to end his sit-in and rallies across the country till the acceptance of his demand of fair audit of the elections under the supervision of superior judiciary.
It was due to the mounting pressure on ruling PML-N that its leaders have started saying in public that the govt-PTI talks were suspended by Imran Khan and their doors are open for meaningful and result-oriented negotiations. Sources in govt informed that PML-N leaders were in constant touch with the Political Jirga members and through backdoor channels the Jirga team was also in contact with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders, and it was the efforts of the Jirga which helped narrow down the differences between the two sides.