ISLAMABAD: Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique claimed on Saturday night that the government was in touch with PTI leaders.

Speaking at a TV show, he expressed confidence that there could be an agreement on acceptance of all demands of the opposition party, short of the prime minister’s resignation. “We have to talk to them in any case and we are already in touch with PTI leaders through other parties and our common friends,” he said.

He dispelled a perception that there had been no serious efforts at making contacts with the PTI leadership.

Shafqat Mehmood, a PTI lawmaker who appeared in the same programme, said that protesting outside the Parliament House was his party’s democratic right and that no-one had said anything about violently storming parliament.

Earlier in the evening, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq told another TV channel that he “still saw light at the end of the tunnel” and there was hope for a rapprochement between the protesting PTI and the

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2014