ISLAMABAD    -    Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif Friday said that Imran Khan was will­ing to talk to the ‘establishment’ and not the government.

The PML-N leader said that last year the government had tried to develop a consensus on the economic policies but that offer was rejected by the then-prime minister. "He [Imran Khan] has offered to talk to the establishment, with the military leadership but not the political leadership. Despite the fact that the present government was willing to talk on so many occasions, Imran kept on insisting and went to the extent of trying to ap­proach the present leadership of the Pakistan Army,” he said while responding to a question during his conversation with the foreign media correspon­dents here. Asif said before that, Khan approached for­mer army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa through the president, tried negotiat­ing with him and offered him an extension for life. “He has not offered the present gov­ernment a dialogue or negotia­tions. However, we are ready to talk for the sake of peace in our country to have a consensus on some major issues,” he added. “We’re not in favour of a tran­sitional dialogue but a compre­hensive one that covers every­thing,” he highlighted.

Kh Asif slammed the PTI chairman for blaming the US for conspiracy to topple his government. After blaming US for conspiracy, Imran Khan is now seeking its help, he said. He said Imran Khan blamed the United States for conspira­cy against his government first and now seeking its help.

Speaking to foreign media persons along with Informa­tion Minister Marriyum Au­rangzeb, Asif said that Imran Khan’s political journey start­ed with a cypher. “And today Shireen Mazari has written a letter to the United States for help [...] the country which was being accused for the conspira­cy against Pakistan or conspir­acy against Imran Khan’s gov­ernment, the same people are now asking for help and res­cue from the perpetrators of a foreign conspiracy.” He said this is a sum of Khan’s journey since his dismissal from the government through the vote of no-confidence and today to “his SOS to the United States”.

Speaking about the recent clashes between the PTI sup­porters and the police, Kh Asif said that there is a possibili­ty they might escalate and get into an ugly situation. “Imran Khan is a desperate man, he has demonstrated violence in the last few weeks and this has never happened in Pakistan,” he said, reiterating that the politi­cal governments have never re­sorted to “organised” violence. The minister said that the gov­ernment still has the ability to control violence triggered by Imran Khan and his supporters.

Talking about the former premier’s appearances before the court, Asif said that no­where in the world has ever an accused refused to appear in court. “And his appearance in the court is accepted while sitting in the car and he actu­ally attacks the courts or the courts are mobbed by his sup­porters.” “Whenever he ap­pears, the courts are intimidat­ed, they come under pressure, face threats. And when police are sent to his home to arrest him, the police are attacked with Molotov cocktails and fir­ing,” he continued.

This has never happened in Pakistan before. Even during Imran’s regime, and in the past too, opposition leaders were ar­rested and they surrendered in a dignified manner,” he said, adding that they never phys­ically contested their arrest, never abused or maligned the courts whatever victimization took place. Recalling the time when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders were arrested, Asif said that there was never this kind of resis­tance when they were detained. “I was picked up from Embassy Road and remained in jail for almost six months. It has been almost three years but my wife and son still appear in courts. The victimization of the oppo­sition [during Imran’s govern­ment] was unprecedented.”

However, he said that the coalition government nev­er resorted to political vic­timization during its tenure. He further said that the in­cumbent government is gov­erning the country under cir­cumstances that are difficult administratively, financially and politically.