ISLAMABAD:

PTI and the government’s negotiating team are expected to meet on Wednesday – after the former’s possible meeting with Imran Khan in Adiala jail – for the third round of ongoing talks between the two sides to end a long-running political crisis.

According to sources, amid an impasse for which the two sides blamed each other, Speaker Sadiq on Saturday held a telephone conversation with NA Opposition Leader Omar Ayub and former NA Speaker Asad Qaiser in response to a text message sent by Ayub.

During this communication, PTI negotiating team members complained that they are not allowed to meet party founder Imran Khan, a meeting that is crucial ahead of further talks with the government.

In response, Chairman Ayaz Sadiq reiterated his position that it was neither his responsibility before, nor now, to arrange such meetings. However, he assured them that he would make efforts to facilitate a meeting between the negotiating team and the PTI founder. They said Sadiq later contacted the government side to arrange a meeting of PTI’s negotiation team with the jailed PTI founder.

The sources claimed that the meeting was likely to take place within the next two days, allowing the third round of talks between the ruling coalition and PTI teams to continue on Wednesday. During this round, the PTI team is expected to present its written demands.

Ahead of this development, Ayaz Sadiq said in a statement that it was not his responsibility to arrange a meeting between jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his party’s negotiating committee.

“My job is only to facilitate talks between the government and the PTI,” he said.

While shifting the burden to the ruling coalition, he noted that the government and its allies should decide whether a meeting can take place or not, and said he was ready to accommodate any request.

On the delay in convening the third meeting between the two sides, Sadiq said that neither the opposition nor the government has contacted him to convene a meeting of the negotiating committees yet.

Sadiq said: “The government and its allies must decide whether the meeting can take place or not”, adding “once the parties agree, I am ready to call a meeting with one or two days’ notice.”

He also suggested that PTI leaders may communicate directly to government representatives including Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah about the delay in the meeting.

In the earlier meeting between the two sides on January 2, the PTI had sought more time with a commitment to present its charter of demands in the third round, provided it was given access to jailed party founder Imran Khan.

Until Friday, the party’s negotiating committee was not allowed to meet Imran, forcing it to not only question the government’s authority to conduct meaningful negotiations.

PTI leaders said the government had promised to arrange a meeting between the party’s committee and its founder, but had not facilitated the same yet, slowing progress in finalizing the charter of demands.

Even before the speaker’s proposal to have a direct contact, PTI’s information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram had conveyed that PTI does not directly talk to the government, adding that the party contacts the speaker’s office and then the speaker’s office talks to the government side.

“The direction is from the Speaker’s office; we are not directly dealing with the government on these issues,” Akram had told The Express Pakinomist a few days ago.

Akram said the issue was raised in the meeting with the government and said the party also approached the Speaker’s office, but was told there was no response to the meeting with Imran yet.

Subsequently, the speaker regretted the PTI leaders’ statement, saying that it was neither his mandate nor responsibility to arrange a meeting between the negotiating team and Imran Khan.

The meeting between Imran Khan and the PTI negotiating committee has turned into a stalemate as the party’s negotiating team is yet to be allowed to have an unmonitored interaction with Imran.

This fiasco has prompted the PTI leaders to say that there will be no progress in the next meeting if the committee is not allowed to meet the party founder before the next round of talks.

Talks between the PTI and the government started on December 23 with the aim of resolving the difficult issues between the two sides, but things have not gone beyond optics yet.

Both sides have met twice so far, but neither the PTI has presented its demands in writing nor the government side has been able to arrange a meeting between the PTI committee and Imran Khan.

The initial delay in making the demands was attributed to the PTI’s strategy to see the outcome of the verdict in the £190 million corruption case against Khan and others, including his wife.

The court’s decision was scheduled for January 6, but was then delayed to January 13, leaving PTI to say that negotiations will continue even if Imran Khan is convicted in the case.

After the January 2 rally, the PTI began questioning the government’s authority to negotiate when it failed to open the doors of the Adiala jail for a rally.

PTI leader Shoaib Shaheen quoted Imran Khan as saying that PTI should hold talks directly with the powerful stakeholders as they hold the real power.

Questioning why the government started the talks process if it had no powers, Shaheen said the delay in allowing a meeting between Imran Khan and the party’s political leadership was enough to show the government’s sincerity in the talks.

In a video statement posted on his official X handle earlier on Saturday, Asad Qaiser accused PML-N leaders Maryam Nawaz and Khawaja Asif of trying to sabotage the negotiation process.

“We are an oppressed party. We were persecuted [and] bullets were fired at our people,” he said, lamenting that the embattled party was accused of trying to damage talks despite being on the receiving end of the “highhandedness”.