Talks between Pak govt & oppn leaders fail to break deadlock

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday to tell voters in next month’s election whether he backs leaving the EU.

Johnson’s main rival in the snap December 12 poll has struggled with defining his position on Brexit ever since Britons narrowly triggered the divorce in a 2016 referendum.

Labour’s new official stance is to negotiate a more EUfriendly withdrawal agreement with Brussels and then let voters decide whether to back it or simply stay in the EU.

But Corbyn refuses to say whether he would then campaign for his own deal. Most top members in the party oppose Brexit and have said they would campaign to remain in the bloc.

Johnson’s Conservatives are trying to seize on Labour’s divisions on the defining issue of UK politics. “Now the time has come for you to come clean,” Johnson told Corbyn in an a letter

released by his office. “Do you believe the results of the 2016 referendum should be respected and the UK should

leave the EU?” Johnson asked. “Would you commit to campaign for your ‘deal’ in a second referendum?” Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Sarmer told BBC radio that letting Britons decide what to do about Brexit was a “practical way to break the impasse”.

“It’s not for the politicians... it’s for the people to decide,” Starmer said. Starmer himself is one of the senior Labour members opposed to Brexit.

Corbyn was due to address supporters later Tuesday.

Labour is trailing the Conservatives by 11 percentage points in a poll of polls compiled by Britain Elects.

But the field also includes smaller pro-eu opposition parties that could potentially form a post-election coalition with Labour — if they ever agree on who should lead the government. ISLAMABAD: The second round of talks between the Pakistan government and opposition leaders failed to break the ongoing deadlock between the two sides on Tuesday even as Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he was ready to accept all “valid” demands of the ‘Azadi March’ protesters, led by a firebrand clericcum-politician Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Prime minister Khan reportedly made the remarks in a meeting with Defence Minister Pervez Khattak-led team tasked to negotiate with the opposition parties taking part in the massive march comprising thousands of protesters in Islamabad.

“The government is ready to accept all valid demands except the demand for resignation,” Khan was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

Defence Minister Khattak said the government is trying to find a middle ground with the opposition to break the ongoing deadlock.

“The talks between the two sides were held in a good atmosphere,” he said.

However, both the sides stuck to their respective positions, Khattak told a news conference after the second round of direct talks with opposition’s Rehbar Committee.

Last night, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) government sent a second delegation to Rehman’s residence to break the impasse in the wake of the Opposition’s bid to oust Khan.

The right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-islam Fazl (JUIF) leader is leading the massive protest, which entered the fifth day on Tuesday. Dubbed as ‘Azadi March’, the protestors demand Khan’s resignation, accusing him of “rigging” the 2018 general elections.

The Opposition parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People Party (PPP), have also thrown their weight behind the anti-government rally.

A delegation led by former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain met the cleric on Monday night, hours after the government’s negotiating team

led by Defence Minister Khattak held talks with the Rehbar Committee headed by JUI-F

leader Akram Khan Durrani and discussed their demands, the report said.

In its list of demands, the Rehbar Committee sought the premier’s resignation and fresh elections in the country without the supervision of the armed forces. The government, on the other hand, has demanded that the committee end the sit-in.

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