- No progress in negotiations if meeting with Khan is not allowed, says Gohar.
- The PTI chief rules out any talk of moving the PTI founder anywhere.
- “He will hold another round of negotiations even if he is not allowed to meet the former prime minister.”
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Thereek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has asked his party’s negotiating team to continue talks with the government, a senior leader said on Wednesday.
The breakthrough came after the PTI negotiating team finally met the former prime minister at Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi after a gap of several days.
“The PTI founder ordered to continue negotiations and gave permission to submit [party’s] both requests in writing to the government committee,” said lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, PTI chairman, while addressing the media outside Adiala jail.
The development comes as PTI leaders – including lawyer Gohar, Ali Zafar and Sher Afzal Marwat – met the former prime minister in a courtroom at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Complex.
This development undoubtedly eases the ambiguity surrounding the future of the ongoing talks between the PTI and the government, which in recent days have been marred by uncertainties due to the former ruling party’s inability to respond to its demands. expectations and to present their written demands.
For days, the PTI has been claiming that the Adiala prison authorities did not allow them to meet Khan and linked this to the possibility of presenting a written charter of demands.
The two parties, after months of fierce political struggle, held two negotiating sessions on December 27, 2024 and January 2, 2025.
However, the PTI’s failure to submit written demands and meet with Khan eventually cast doubt on the future of the talks, as it resulted in a stalemate with the government insisting on the former.
In the last meeting between the government and the PTI negotiating committees, both sides had decided that the party founded by Khan would present its charter of demands in the next session, after meeting the jailed prime minister. Further, it was decided that the third round of talks would be convened after the PTI committee met Khan.
The former ruling party has repeatedly reiterated its call for the release of its founder and workers and the formation of a judicial commission into the events of the May 9 riots and the November 26 protests last year .
Speaking on the future of negotiations with the government, lawyer Gohar said the party would now present its demands in writing.
On the issue of the negotiation committee meeting with Khan, the PTI chairman said the former prime minister had told them to hold another round of talks if they are not allowed to meet him.
However, he noted that the PTI founder believes that negotiations will not be able to progress further if the party’s negotiators are now allowed to meet him.
Stressing that the PTI did not want the negotiations to be derailed on the issue of written demands, the PTI leader recalled that he had established good contacts with the government before November 2024. However, he lamented, the The case did not subsequently progress. .
Lawyer Gohar also ruled out the possibility that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi or anyone else had requested Khan’s release and clarified that there had been no discussions to transfer him elsewhere.
“The PTI founder said he would welcome any invitation from any country,” Gohar remarked.
“[However] we have already said ‘absolutely not’ to the United States, if there is interference, we will also say it in the future,” he added.
Separately, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), during a hearing at Adiala jail, approved Khan’s request for medical examination and allowed him to speak to his sons.
