PTI to hold talks ‘only with army, ISI chiefs’
ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) leader Shehryar Afridi has let the cat out of bag by declaring unequivocally that his party would hold talks only with Chief of Army Staff Gen Syed Asim Munir and Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) director general Lt-gen Nadeem Anjum for rapprochement and not with the government.
“We will not talk to the rejected people who reached the parliament through Form 47 [fraudulent means],” Afridi told a TV channel when he was asked about ways to put Pakistan on the path of political stability.
Slamming the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PMLN) led government, the PTI stalwart alleged that the incumbent rulers are a bunch of “rejected people” who are being “controlled through a remote” and reached parliament via “Form 47.”
He also alleged that the ruling parties were “supported by the establishment.”
Responding to new calls for reconciliation, Afridi said that there was no benefit for the former ruling party to hold dialogue with the “people rejected by the nation.”
He said that PTI founder Imran Khan and Pakistan are inseparable while his opponents faced a humiliating defeat in the Feb.8 nationwide general elections despite committing “worst rigging.”
The incumbent rulers need moral power to step down after accepting that they did not get votes from the nation, he added.
Simultaneously, the Senate retained conciliatory aura for the second consecutive day with calls for burying the politics of confrontation and strengthening the parliamentary democracy.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) parliamentary party leader Senator Sherry Rehman while opening discussion on President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to the joint sitting of parliament reiterated his message of turning a new page in history to address the challenges facing the nation.
“We all should welcome Zardari’s address in which he called on all political leaders to turn a new page, hold dialogue and aim for the much-needed political reset.”
PML-N parliamentary leader Senator Irfan Siddiqui urged the PTI to hold talks to solve the crises facing the country. He noted that politicians faced ups and downs and governments came and went but they have to leave some traditions and legacy for future generations.
Talking about reconciliation, he said it was a two-way process.