ISLAMABAD: The PTI, in a rare display of rapprochement, has expressed willingness to accept Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah’s offer to mediate in the party’s stalled dialogue with the PML-N government.

Mr Shah said on Satur­day he had received a message from PTI Secretary General Jahangir Tareen, saying he wanted to meet the PPP leader in a day or two.

Mr Shah, who is currently spending time in his constituency in Sukkur, said that Mr Tareen had conveyed the message telephonically to PPP Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira.

These, the first signs of a potential thaw in the PTI-government standoff, came as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar — who also heads the government team negotiating with the PTI — welcomed Mr Shah’s offer to mediate between the two sides at a press conference on Saturday. Mr Shah first made the offer during a chat with reporters at his Parliament House chamber in December, and then reiterated it directly to PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a conversation before the latter headed to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.

Mr Dar said that he had learned through media reports that Mr Shah had offered to mediate between the two sides, who are currently at a stalemate over the proposed judicial commission that will investigate Imran Khan’s allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections. Hr said the government welcomed Mr Shah’s offer and was waiting for a response from the PTI.

Mr Dar claimed that only three “minor issues” needed to be ironed out between the two sides, adding that the government was ready to form the commission through a presidential ordinance, if need be.

Asad Umar, who is also a part of the PTI negotiation team, told Dawn his party had never opposed a mediatory role by any party, including the PPP.

Mr Umar said his party had held a number of meetings with the opposition jirga, of which PPP Senator Rehman Malik was a member, adding that the two sides had last met at Mr Malik’s residence. However, he said that the jirga never got back to the PTI after that meeting.

Hr said the unresolved issues between the government and the PTI were well-known. “Anyone who wanted to mediate must know the real bones of contention between the two parties. But no matter who was mediating, the final decision would rest with the government and the PTI, he said.

Mr Shah said in view of the terrorist threat to the country, both the government and the PTI would have to show flexibility and place national interest above their ego.

Talks between the government and the PTI became deadlocked on Jan 24, when the PTI rejected the latest draft presented to it by Mr Dar, suggesting a new ‘scope of inquiry’ for the proposed judicial commission.

Meanwhile, PTI Information Sec­retary Shireen Mazari in a statement called on National Assem­­bly Spea­ker Ayaz Sadiq to immediately step down because “evide­nce of rigging was piling up as the election tribunal examined the NA-122 case”.

She said Imran Khan’s representatives had examined the authenticity of Forms XIV and XV from 70 polling stations through a private forensic laboratory and had found that 50 of the returning officers’ signatures had been “forged”.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play