Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has suggested that the government should hold talks with the opposition. In a series of tweets on Monday morning, Fawad claimed that “the opposition narrative is practically dead” after the much-hyped Lahore rally attracted a few thousand attendees. Nevertheless, the “government should in any case pave the way for the beginning of negotiations with the opposition.” The comments of the federal minister came after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) representatives termed the PDM public rally a “flop show” and a proof that the people of Punjab had rejected the opposition’s narrative. The minister stated that Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai should have accepted his failure at the Minar-e-Pakistan rally but the latter decided not to do so because of his arrogance. “The narrative of the opposition has died after yesterday’s jalsa in Lahore,” he said. “It’s high time for the government to pave the way for the opposition and start negotiations with them.” Earlier, Fawad Chaudhry stated that Achakzai should be ousted from the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) if PML-N and PPP consider themselves to be federal parties, otherwise they would be historically recognised for siding with “anti-Punjab” characters. Fawad said that Mahmood Khan Achakzai is ‘ignorant’ and questioned his loyalties to the country after he used some insulting words for the people of Lahore during PDM’s rally at Minar-e-Pakistan on Sunday. “Achakzai does not even know that every movement for democracy in Pakistan started from Lahore,” Fawad Chaudhry maintained. The Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s chief had accused the people of Lahore for siding with the British, along with Hindus and Sikhs, during the pre-partition era. “I am not here to accuse anyone, but I am sorry to say that the people of Lahore tried to occupy the Afghan territory together with the British, Sikhs and the Hindus,” Achakzai had said.