Syed Ali Zafar calls for confidence building measures to create environment for talks.  Irfan Siddiqui says we want dialogue with open heart but PTI should not hang a sword.  Talks are held without any conditionalities, says Sherry.  Wali demands ruling coalition to tell the house about reasons behind extending tenure of army chief.

ISLAMABAD  -  The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led federal government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday in the Senate agreed to hold a dialogue to end ongoing political crisis in the country with former censuring the opposition party for its ‘agitational politics’ and the latter asking for confidence-building measures (CBMs) to create some conducive environment for talks.

Taking part in the debate on the recent protest of ex-premier Imran Khan’s followers at Islamabad’s D-Chowk, the parliamentary leader of PTI in the House Syed Ali Zafar said he was in favour of a dialogue with the ruling parties to end ongoing political instability. “The doors for talk should never be shut down,” he said, urging the need for some CBMs from the Shehbaz Sharif administration. I am not seeing any CBMs from the government as my party workers are still being arrested, he said. He added that trust in each other was critically important to negotiate.

He called for an independent truth and reconciliation commission to probe what happened at the D-Chowk on November 26, and asked the government to apologise, if an investigation endorses their stance that peaceful protesters had been indiscriminately fired upon.

Senator Zafar underlined that the government should release all political prisoners and ensure rule of law if it wanted from PTI not to hold a protest in future for political stability – a prerequisite for economic stability. PML-N parliamentary leader Irfan Siddiqui in his remarks said the government has never shut its doors for talks, asking the PTI to give up politics of agitation if it wanted a dialogue.

“We want a dialogue with an open heart,” he said, adding that the opposition party should not hang the sword of “civil disobedience movement” over their heads. “Pakistan should move forward but old methods of politics need to be given up,” he said. He said that PTI should not hang a sword that if talks were not held by such a date they would start a disobedience movement, adding this kind of behaviour could not go together. Senator Siddiqui recalled that no country in the world gives its people an unconditional right to “peaceful protest.” He, referring to PTI, said no protest in the world started with slogans of “jihad” or “do or die.”. He said no country in the world would allow protesters to bring with them sticks, tear gas shells and slingshots.

PPP parliamentary leader Senator Sherry Rehman in her speech said her party has always talked about dialogue, but the PTI always remained averse to it.

She said the PPP had offered talks at the time of elections as well, but the opposition party rejected it.

She underscored that talks were held without any conditionalities, indicating that the PTI has set two conditions for the talks. She said there should be freedom of expression and protest but with some responsibility, which the PTI lacked.

Senator Rehman accused PTI of staging a violent protest and asked it to apologize for it. She blamed the party for what happened in Islamabad on November 26, saying it provoked the people by bringing them to the D-Chowk.

Contrary to the government claims that law enforcement agencies didn’t use live ammunition at the PTI protestors at D-Chowk, ruling PML-N Senator Afnan Ullah Khan said he was in a shock that bullets were fired at PTI protesters. He chided the PTI leadership for leaving alone “unarmed and poor workers” at the protest venue and fleeing from the scene. He questioned why no MP, senator or provincial minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government faced any injury.

The parliamentary leader of ANP Aimal Wali Khan taking part in the debate questioned the law, passed by the parliament along with the 26th Amendment, which extended the tenure of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir from three to five years.

“The house in its last session extended the tenure of an important position but the entire system lacked courage to talk on this legislation,” he said while referring to the amendments made, by the parliament, in the Pakistan Army Act 1952 last month. He said all three major political parties including PPP, PML-N and PTI harmed democracy by supporting the law.

Senator Aimal also questioned the conspicuous absence of Leader of the Opposition Shibli Faraz in the house on the day when the bill was passed. “The opposition leader is also compromised in this system,” he said, blaming PTI Senator Faraz that he never used to make it to the house on the occasions of important law-making. Having a look at the past, he said that even after the passage of the present 1973 Constitution, former army chiefs including General Ziaul Haq, General Pervez Musharraf, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and General Qamar Javed Bajwa served beyond their three-year term. Now the Army Act has been amended in a way that present COAS General Asim Munir can serve for 10 years and even beyond that, he added. Wali demanded the ruling coalition to inform the house about the reasons behind extending the tenure of the army chief.

Separately, the house unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the grave violations of international law by Israel. “The Senate notes with alarm the exploitation of the political vacuum caused by regime collapse in Syria, which Israel is using to advance its unilateral agenda. This agenda now extends beyond Palestine to violations of the sovereignty of Syria and many other countries,” reads the resolution moved by Senator Sherry Rehman. The resolution, signed by members from both sides of the aisle, called for immediate accountability for these actions.