ISLAMABAD - The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has annulled the talks with the government after the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) expressed its reservations for not taking it into confidence on the talks.
JUI-F Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani were scheduled to meet the government side on Sunday on the issue of protest.
The decision to hold talks with the government will now be taken by the Rahbar Committee on October 22 in Islamabad.
A reliable source in JUI-F told The Nation that the dialogue was cancelled due to the reservations of PPP and other opposition parties as they were not taken into confidence before holding the negotiations.
Senior PPP leader Nayyar Bukhari had showed his party’s reservation on the JUI-F talks with the government without taking them in confidence. Consequently, Maulana Fazlur Rehman cancelled the talks with the government.
He stopped his party leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri from holding talks with the government side saying all the decisions regarding the protest would be taken after consensus with all the opposition parties.
Sources in JUI-F revealed that the dialogue was not fixed from the JUI-F officially, but it was a kind of informal and personal session between Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani and Abdul Ghafoor Haideri as they were both from the same province.
A day earlier, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had expressed his optimism that the government’s reconciliation committee would have meaningful negotiations with the JUI-F chief.
He had claimed that the government was in constant contact with JUI-F and other opposition leaders to avert the march and was receiving positive response in that regard.
On the other hand, the JUI-F leaders have frequently expressed their reservations on the attitude of the government and have termed the government as non-serious about the dialogues.
It is pertinent to mention that the government had formed a seven-member committee to hold talks with the JUI-F leadership in order to avert the anti-government protest.
