News
Election rigging: govt, PTI fail to iron out differences
By Asim Qadeer Rana
ISLAMABAD: Desperately trying to break the deadlock, the federal government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) held a secret round of negotiations on Saturday but the two sides failed to iron out differences over the basic definition of ‘rigging.’
Perturbed over the scenario, the PTI is set to take up the matter in its Core Committee meeting scheduled today (Sunday) top decide its future course of action regarding the party’s representation in the Parliament.
According to a party source, the PTI will decide whether to return to the Parliament or not in today’s meeting. The government representatives, the source claimed, have urged the PTI to withdraw its members resignations from the Parliament and join it. “We have been told that the parliamentary unity is the need of the hour for crucial legal amendments necessary to pave way for setting up military courts. We are with the government on this issue but the way our concerns have not been addressed in the talks prompts us to review our strategy and Core Committee is being held for this purpose,” the PTI leader said.
If the PTI’s concerns are addressed, the party may rejoin the Parliament and provincial assemblies, the source added.
The federal government and PTI have held a number of rounds of talks but the basic issues are not addressed as yet. While the federal government representatives want the expulsion of the word ‘conspiracy’ from the charge-sheet the PTI has framed against the government regarding May 2013 general polls, the PTI is adamant not to budge back. Moreover, the two sides are said to have failed to reach an agreement over the very definition of the word ‘rigging.’
“The ball is in the government’s court,” commented senior PTI leader Jehangir Tareen on Saturday. “We have held a number of rounds of talks but things are where they were, the government can change the things should it want to,” he told the media, referring to stalled talks.
On the other hand, PTI leader Ahsan Iqbal believed talks were progressing and the two sides were inching closer. “We would keep coming together to sort out the disagreements,” he said adding that both sides are to meet on Tuesday after sharing their inputs on the talks, so far, with their respective leaderships. “I hope things would turn out good and the outcome of our negotiations would be positive.”
The government is set to introduce an ordinance for setting up judicial commission on PTI’s demand to probe the alleged general polls rigging from last year but the PTI has rejected this move saying that certain specifications on judicial commission’s formation were in contradictions to the assurances the government gave to Imran Khan’s party during the talks.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk