Talks with govt to continue, says Gohar

ISLAMABAD:

The talks between the PTI and the ruling PML-N will continue despite the conviction of PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife in a corruption case, PTI Chairman Ali Gohar Khan announced on Friday.

“[Talks] will not be aborted because of this [judgment],” Gohar quoted Imran as saying soon after an accountability court sentenced the former PM to 14 years in prison in the £190m Al-Qadir Trust corruption case.

He said talks with the government would continue and the PTI would wait to see if the government constituted judicial commissions on May 9 and Nov 26 incidents.

Imran said the talks with the government will continue but if there is no progress in the seven-day deadline given to the other side then there will be no further talks, he added.

“The PTI has submitted its charter of demands; and it will wait to see how the government responds to the demands,” Gohar said.

He said Imran Khan is in high spirits and not afraid of the conviction. The sentence awarded in Al-Qadir reference will soon be overturned by the higher judiciary, he claimed.

The PTI chairman recalled that Imran has constantly been saying to the higher judiciary that people do not get justice from lower courts and this leads to shattering nations’ trust in judiciary.

Gohar said nations get destroyed when there is no justice in the society. Asking people not to lose hope, he said justice will soon be served.

The government-PTI talks started on December 23 and both sides have so far held three rounds of talks to discuss thorny issues and to find solutions that may bring political and economic stability in the country.

To a question if backdoor channel was still being used for talks, Gohar while hesitating for a second said that “this is the channel, which will continue”.

Apparently, the third round of talks was initially delayed until a verdict was announced in the £190m corruption case as the government side kept demanding a charter of demands from the PTI while the PTI kept insisting that it would only submit its demands after its negotiators are allowed to meet Imran Khan in jail for finalizing the same.

Surprisingly, announcement of the judgment was deferred thrice as the talks stretched into a third week without any progress.

However, the PTI negotiation committee was finally allowed to meet Imran Khan in jail to discuss its demands and present it before the government.

Following the meeting, the PTI negotiation committee presented its demands before the ruling coalition’s committee. The demands Khan’s party conveyed in writing to the government side during their third round include judicial inquiries into the May 9, 2023, and November 26, 2024 events, as well as the release of “political prisoners.”

Apart from judicial commissions, the PTI and its allies have sought support of the federal and provincial governments in bail, sentence suspensions and acquittal of “political prisoners” identified by the party.