Daily Times

Delegations of the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will meet again tomorrow (Friday) as the first round of talks on holding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa concluded.

The government nominated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leaders Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Law Minister Azam Tarar, and Ayaz Sadiq and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders Yousaf Raza Gillani and Syed Naveed Qamar as members of the committee.

The MQM-P’s Kishwar Zehra was also a part of the government-nominated committee.

Meanwhile, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Barrister Ali Zafar and senior leader Fawad Chaudhry represented the former ruling party. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) skipped the talks.

The negotiations between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were held at Parliament House to break political impasse regarding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and concluded after almost two hours.

While in a media talk after the meeting PPP’s Yousaf Raza Gilani said, the ruling parties would consult each other and make a decision. “Whatever is decided, it will be based on input from all parties,” he added.

The talks would be resumed tomorrow at 3pm, during which the PTI would present their demands, Gilani said, adding that the coalition parties would then be apprised of the PTI’s demands.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while speaking to the media, said the consultations ended after two hours and stressed that political parties find solutions to problems through talks.

However, he said, that his party would not allow the talks to be used as a delaying tactic for elections.

At the last hearing before Eidul Fitr, the SC had asked political parties to hold talks on April 26 and come up with a response by April 27 after giving stakeholders a chance to reach an agreement.