PTI won't attend fourth round of talks with govt today: Gohar

• PTI quits talks over govt's failure in fulfilling demands, says Gohar.
• NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq makes last ditch effort to save dialogue.
• PTI delegation to meet JUI-F's Maulana Fazlur Rehman

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) negotiating committee will not attend the fourth meeting with the government's committee for a dialogue, which is set to take place today(Tuesday) in Islamabad, party's Chaiman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said. 

The announcement came on Monday evening during the politician's media talk after his meeting with a delegation of the Anchors Association of Pakistan. 

"We will not sit in tomorrow's meeting with the government. The NA speaker's secretary has also been informed [in this regard]."

He elucidated that the government was given seven days by the PTI to establish judicial commissions to probe the events surrounding May 9 and November 26. He stated that his party chose to quit the negotiation process because the government did not fulfill the demand.

Meanwhile, the insiders said that National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, in a last ditch effort to save the negotiation process, spoke to PTI leader Asad Qaiser and urged him to attend today’s meeting. However, Qaiser didn’t give him a firm assurance of attending tomorrow's meeting, the sources said. 

Moreover, there are reports of a meeting of a PTI delegation with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman likely today. The PTI delegation will deliver party founder Imran Khan’s message to the veteran politician. 

It is worth noting that the seven "working" days agreed upon by both parties in the negotiating process come to an end today, according to Prime Minister's Adviser on Public and Political Affairs, Rana Sanaullah. 

Unlike the former ruling party, the government has still not called off the negotiation process, as it said that they will offer PTI a middle ground if the rival party attends today's meeting. 

However, it has announced that its committee for the talks will be disbanded if PTI skips the meeting. 

Senator Irfan Siddiqui, a spokesperson for the government's negotiation committee, warned that their committee would be dissolved if the PTI boycotted the the fourth round of talks.

Taking to Geo News, 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.  

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.

However, the dialogue process hit a snag as the Khan-founded party announced to quit negotiations if the government fails to form the judicial commissions to probe the May 9, 2023 violent protests and a crackdown on party protesters in Islamabad on November 26 last year., one of its demands.