PML-N’s Irfan Siddiqui says no more talk offers for PTI unless PTI ‘approaches it seriously’ – Pakistan

PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui has indicated that his party would no longer “repeatedly call out” to the PTI for talks, while reiterating that the latter needed to approach it with seriousness.

Relations between the PTI and the PML-N-led coalition government — already tense since party founder Imran Khan’s ouster in 2022 — have grown even more strained over time.

While the PML-N has repeatedly offered a dialogue to the PTI, the latter’s founder Imran Khan has cited certain conditions, including the return of its “stolen mandate”, and has instead preferred holding talks with the military establishment.

Earlier this month, senior PTI leader MNA Ali Muhammad Khan indicated that his party might be open to negotiating with the PML-N, PPP, and MQM-P to resolve ongoing tensions between the government and the opposition, provided PTI’s demands are met.

Speaking on Dawn News’ programme ‘Doosra Rukh’, which was aired on Friday night, Siddiqui said: “We repeatedly said ‘fine, you have entered the House (Parliament) — in whatever way you have — then at least sit together on that level and try to solve your matters’.

“[But] they do not want to talk, and we have also thought that now we will not repeatedly call out to them from our rooftops that ‘come, talk to us’,” the politician added.

However, he went on to say that the PML-N and its coalition partners would “consider whether to open the door or not” for talks with the PTI if the latter “approached it seriously”.

The senator stressed that holding a dialogue depended on when the PTI would have realised that “we shouldn’t have talks with the army but with politicians”.

He added that perhaps Mahmood Khan Achakzai, chief of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and leader of the opposition alliance, would be “successful in making [the PTI] understand” that a dialogue among political parties was needed.

“The point is that a party does not want to hold talks with you, and this is that party which was clearly seen behind the May 9 [incidents],” Senator Siddiqui said, referring to the violent protests last year following Imran’s arrest.

Speaking about the government’s decision to seek a ban on the PTI, Senator Siddiqui asserted that the PTI’s role “cannot be the role of a patriotic [political] party”.

“This party’s role can not be called pro-Pakistani in any manner,” the PML-N lawmaker said.

Siddiqui went on to list the PTI’s letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and protests it has organised outside the Fund’s office, the May 9 riots as well as multiple resolutions passed in the US Congress.

“All these elements and ingredients are such on the basis of which a decision can be made. When the National Awami Party was banned, they hadn’t taken such actions. They hadn’t carried out such attacks like the PTI has done,” the senator said.

“We will also see what Faiz Hameed sahib discloses. After that, we will consider,” he said, stating that it was yet to be seen how and when the decision to ban would be implemented.

‘Imran led, Gen Faiz enabled him’: info minister

“Who brought terrorism back to Pakistan?” Tarar said, referring to the PTI government’s plan to relocate thousands of fighters from the outlawed Tehreek-i-Tali­ban Pakistan (TTP) to the country.

“Didn’t the PTI founder conspire with them and say that the Taliban should be brought back?” the info minister asked.

On the court martial proceedings against Gen Faiz, he said that the development was a positive one and the government stood with the decision.

“Self-accountability needs to take place within other institutions as well,” he said.