Sharifs’ PML-N rules out any talks with Imran Khan’s party

Islamabad: The ruling PML-N of the Sharifs on Saturday ruled out any talks with the main opposition party led by Imran Khan, saying the jailed former prime minister needed to approach it with seriousness.

Irfan Siddiqui, a senator from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was speaking with Dawn News channel when he was asked about Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

“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’,” Siddiqui said in the interview aired on Friday night.

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 that party “approached it seriously.” The Pakistan government last month announced a ban on Khan’s PTI. Khan, 71, has been incarcerated at Adiala Jail for a year now in connection with multiple cases against him.

Earlier, when Khan's PTI-backed candidates won the largest number of seats in the February general elections despite contesting as independents as the party was denied an election symbol, Khan alleged that PML-N and its coalition partners, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) “stole the mandate” to grab power at the federal level.

Relations between the PTI and the PML-N-led coalition government —already tense since Khan’s ouster in 2022 — have strained even more and the announcement of the ban on PTI appears to be the proverbial last nail.

Senator Siddiqui 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 Pashtoonkhwa 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],” Siddiqui said, referring to the violent protests last year following Imran’s arrest.

After Khan was arrested in an accountability case last year, hundreds and thousands of his followers and party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Jinnah House (Lahore Corps Commander House), Mianwali Airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad on May 9. The Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi too was attacked by the mob for the first time.

While the PML-N has repeatedly offered a dialogue to the PTI, the latter’s founder 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 and lawmaker Ali Muhammad Khan indicated that his party might be open to negotiating with the PML-N, PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan to resolve ongoing tensions between the government and the opposition, provided PTI’s demands are met.

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 cannot be called pro-Pakistani in any manner,” the senior 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 didn’t taken such actions. They hadn’t carried out such attacks like the PTI has done,” the senator said.