PTI to hold talks with army chief, DG ISI soon, claims Shehryar Afridi

• Opponents faced defeat in Feb 8 polls despite “worst rigging”: Afridi.
• Says PTI founder wants to engage stakeholders but receives no response.
• “Imran Khan doesn’t want NRO but dialogues for country’s betterment.”
  

After calls were made to initiate a new round of reconciliation talks, PTI senior leader Shehryar Afridi has claimed that his party will hold "dialogues with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) soon" instead of talking to "rejected people" who reached the parliament via "Form 47".

Afridi made the statement while speaking to the Geo News programme Naya Pakistan when sought his opinion about ways to put the country on the path of political stability.

Slamming the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government, the PTI stalwart alleged that the incumbent rulers are a bunch of "rejected people" who are being "controlled through 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, he said that there was no benefit for the former ruling party to hold dialogues with the “people rejected by the nation”.

He went on to say that PTI founder Imran Khan and Pakistan are inseparable while his opponents faced a humiliating defeat in the February 8 nationwide general elections despite committing “worst rigging”.

It needs a moral power for the incumbent rulers to step down after accepting that they did not get votes from the nation, he added.

“My leader doesn’t want any NRO. We want dialogues for the betterment of Pakistan,” Afridi said, adding that Khan wants to engage all stakeholders for a better country but he did not receive any response. He clarified that the PTI was neither going against the national interests nor the military and other state institutions.

The former federal minister also claimed that the Imran-founded party would soon hold talks with the army chief and the top spy, however, he did not disclose any further details nor any other party leader seconded his statement so far.

In the same programme, PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry threw shade at the former ruling party and said that the Imran-founded party’s stance on dialogues was actually meant to seek an “NRO”. He claimed that the PTI was “already engaged in talks but on the other hand, it is also bluffing it.”

Chaudhry added that the PML-N government gave its stance to award pardon to the PTI founder if he agrees to “return £190m” to the national exchequer.

Earlier this week, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that they did not receive any messages for dialogues nor holding any secret dialogues. He was responding to queries regarding a possible reconciliation talks signalled by PML-N stalwart Rana Sanaullah.

PTI founder Khan has confirmed that he did not receive any messages for dialogues, Barrister Gohar said while speaking to reporters outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on Tuesday. “We will publicly confirm if we receive any invitation for talks.”

The politico categorically rejected holding dialogues with the incumbent government and said that his party would not hold any “secret talks”.

Earlier, Sanaullah extended a “reconciliation offer” to the incarcerated Khan and said that together they could steer the country out of crises.

Speaking on Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath, he urged the PTI founder to come to the table as the country’s fragile economy could not bear escalating political tensions and politics of protests and agitation.

He asked Khan to “take the matter to a logical conclusion”. The former interior minister said that the PTI founder was not even “ready to sit or talk” with anyone.

Sanaullah made the call for dialogues after his party claimed at least two out of the five National Assembly seats, and also won 10 out of the 16 seats in the provincial legislatures, according to the unofficial and inconclusive results.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid have won one seat each in the provincial assemblies.