• No progress in negotiations if the meeting with Khan is not allowed, says Gohar.
• PTI chief rules out any discussion of changing PTI founder anywhere.
• “Will hold another round of talks, although not allowed to meet the former prime minister.”

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Thereek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has directed his party’s negotiation team to continue holding talks with the government, a top leader said on Wednesday.

The breakthrough came after the PTI negotiation team finally met the former prime minister in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail after a one-day break.

“The PTI founder has directed to continue the talks and has given permission to submit [party’s] both demand in writing to the government committee,” PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said while addressing the media outside Adiala Jail.

The development comes as the PTI leaders – comprising Barrister Gohar, Ali Zafar and Sher Afzal Marwat – met the former prime minister in a courtroom in Rawalpindi’s Adiala facility.

The development no doubt lessens the ambiguity surrounding the future of the ongoing PTI government talks, which have been marred by uncertainty in recent days due to the former ruling party’s inability to fulfill its jailed foundations and present its written demands.

For days, the PTI has claimed that it was not allowed to meet Khan by Adiala jail authorities and has linked the prospect of presenting a written charter of demands with it.

After months of political tug-of-war, the two sides have held two negotiation meetings on 27 December 2024 and 2 January 2025.

However, PTI’s failure to present written demands and meet Khan ended up casting doubt on the future of talks as it resulted in a deadlock with the government, which has insisted on the former.

During the last meeting between the government and PTI’s negotiating committee, the two sides had decided that the Khan-founded party would present its charter of demands in the next session after meeting the jailed prime minister. It was also decided that the third round of talks would be called after the PTI committee met Khan.

The former ruling party has again 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 last year’s November 26 protests.

Talking about the future of parleys with the government, Advocate Gohar said the party would now present its demands in writing.

On the issue of the negotiation committee’s meeting with Khan, the PTI chairman said the former prime minister has asked them to hold another round of talks if they are not allowed to meet him.

However, he noted that the PTI founder is of the view that the talks cannot move forward if the party’s negotiators are now allowed to meet him.

The PTI chief stressed that the PTI did not want the talks to be derailed on the issue of written demands and recalled that they had established good contact with the government before November 2024. However, he regretted that the matter did not move forward after that. .

Barrister Gohar also ruled out the possibility that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi or anyone else had called for Khan’s release, clarifying that there has been no discussion of moving him elsewhere.

“The PTI founder has said that they would welcome any invitation from any country,” Gohar noted.

“[However] we have said ‘absolutely not’ to the US before, if there is interference, we will say so in the future as well,” he added.

Separately, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), while conducting a hearing in Adiala jail, approved Khan’s request for a medical examination and allowed him to speak to his sons.