Senator Irfan Siddiqui, a spokesperson for the government's negotiation committee, said on Monday the government’s committee would be dissolved if the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) boycotts the fourth round of talks on Jan 28.
Siddiqui’s remarks came days after jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI decided to boycott the fourth round of talks with the government due to “delay” in formation of judicial commissions to investigate the May 9 violent protests and a crackdown on the protesters in Islamabad on November 26 last year.
Siddiqui termed PTI’s stance related to the ongoing talks “illogical”, saying that the former ruling party took six weeks to share their demands with the government’s team, while the ruling coalition just sought seven working days for a written response to the Khan-led party’s demands.
“In the joint declaration, seven working days are mentioned,” he added.
The PTI and the ruling coalition have been engaged in talks aimed at defusing political tensions in the country for nearly a month. Both sides have held three rounds of talks so far.
The dialogue process hit a snag as the Khan-founded party is of the view that they would attend the fourth round of talks only if the government formed the judicial commission while the ruling alliance stated that they would give their written response to the PTI’s demand in the next round of negotiation.