Government and PTI are to continue election date negotiations on Friday.
Talks between the government and the opposition have concluded for the first time in Islamabad; they will resume on Friday at 3 p.m.
In ISLAMABAD, the long-awaited negotiations to reach an agreement on holding elections for the national and provincial assemblies on the same date finally got underway on Thursday between a committee of leaders representing the federal government and a team of senior leaders from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at the Parliament House.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Law Minister Azam Tarar, and Ayaz Sadiq, as well as Yousaf Raza Gillani and Syed Naveed Qamar, were nominated by the administration to serve on the committee.
Kishwar Zehra, a member of the MQM-P, was included in the government-appointed panel.
Former ruling party PTI was represented by Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Barrister Ali Zafar, and Senior Leader Fawad Chaudhry. Talks were skipped by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
Caretaker governments in Punjab and K-P are challenged in the Supreme Court by Fawad.
According to reports, the administration and the opposition finished their first round of talks on Thursday night, and they will resume their discussions on Friday at 3 p.m.
After the meeting, Gillani told reporters that PTI would bring its requests to the government’s negotiating committee the next day. The talks today, he remarked, had a good vibe to them.
He added that the government has no requests of its own and that he will take the demands of the PTI to the coalition’s top officials.
Dar, the Minister of Finance, said the government committee had adopted a principled approach by dealing with the issue within the bounds of the Constitution. He stressed the need to balance individual interests with those of the state and its citizens.
After the meeting, he said, both committees will debrief with their respective leadership. He also mentioned that a more in-depth discussion would be held on Friday at 3pm to go through the topic in further detail.
A special committee for holding political discussion was formed just hours after Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani sent letters to the leader of the house and the opposition proposing potential nominees from the treasury and opposition benches.
The Senate chairman wrote to Senator Ishaq Dar and to Dr. Shahzad Waseem, asking them to each appoint four members to the special committee within two days.
Sanjrani argued that the Senate of Pakistan, House of Federation, is vested with the duty to safeguard national and political unity in the name of defending the national and public interest because it serves as a stabilising element in the federation.
Given the current political and economic climate, he continued, “by accepting this responsibility and recognising that the Parliament is the right and only forum for the resolution of political issues,” a committee of senators from both parties was proposed to address the crisis, which would include holding general elections.
Fazl stays out of the government, and the PTI holds election date talks.
The special committee has representatives from both the House’s leadership and the opposition on it.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial’s comments that “courts cannot force political parties to hold negotiations” prompted the much-discussed talks, with Bandial emphasising that the top court just demanded adherence to the Constitution and an end to the standoff over the postponing of elections.
The Supreme Court resumed hearing the matter about the postponement in Punjab elections shortly after the CJP’s comments.
According to Pakistan’s Attorney General Mansoor Awan, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani plans to form a committee of members from both parties to work out a compromise for holding elections for the national and provincial assemblies on the same day.
In the national interest, respect for the Constitution, and welfare of the people, the three-judge panel recommended that the political parties reach accord on one date for elections. The court was concerned that unless something was done, “nothing would change.”
The Supreme Court last week threatened to enforce its order regarding the Punjab Assembly elections on May 14 if all political parties did not quickly reach a consensus on a date for holding simultaneous general elections of the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies.
The prime minister added that holding elections was a matter that needed to be discussed in parliament the day before, and that the PML-N parliamentary party and cabinet should meet separately to discuss the matter.
