Sanjrani makes efforts to attract Fazl in order to facilitate government-PTI discussions
Two heads of state meet to address the country’s political and legal turmoil.
On Sunday, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani visited the Peshawar party center of JUI-F leader and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman to try to encourage him to join the government’s negotiations with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The JUI-F MNA Mufti Abdul Shakoor, minister of religious affairs, passed away in a car crash in Islamabad, and the two leaders said Fateha for his soul.
The current political and legal challenges in the country were also discussed.
Sanjrani, together with a JUI-F delegation, paid a condolences visit to the home of the deceased party MNA.
The JUI-F is the sole member of the government coalition that is opposed to meeting with the PTI.
The head of the JUI-F said on Thursday that his party will not be involved in talks with the opposition party regarding when elections would be held.
Hours before the first session of discussions between the government of PDM and PPP and Imran Khan’s PTI on the issue of elections, the statement was made.
He stated that his party’s official stance is that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should use its authority to resolve the issue.
A solution would not be found by sitting down with the PTI, he continued.
Since elections in Pakistan have always been held on a single day, the PDM president argued that the Supreme Court’s decision to hold the elections in Punjab on May 14 was not enforceable and that the judges should correct it themselves.
The leader of the JUI-F insisted that his party, which had just won in Punjab, would soon also be in charge of the federal government.
He said the Supreme Court had denied any role in the negotiations and taken a firm stance by refusing to reverse its ruling about the May 14 elections.
The court had been insisting on negotiations between politicians over the past few weeks, but during the hearing on Thursday, he said, the court’s attitude seemed to change.
Sanjrani wrote letters to the House Speaker and the Opposition Leader on the same day, proposing that a special committee be formed to facilitate political conversation between members of the Treasury and Opposition benches.
The Senate chairman requested that Senator Ishaq Dar and Dr. Shahzad Waseem each name four individuals to serve on the special committee within two days.
Sanjrani elaborated by saying that the Senate, as a constitutionally recognized “stabilizing factor” of the federation, is charged with preserving national and political peace in the name of the public interest.
