ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) continues to stick to its resignation obsession, the opposition political parties and the government appear to be tweaking the former’s proposals into a more palatable form.
It seems as if the political parties as well as some government elements are now suggesting that the resignation of the prime minister should be made conditional to the findings of the judicial commission which the government has asked the Supreme Court to set up to investigate the allegations of rigging during the May 2013 general elections.
Also read: Imran Khan may back down on resignation demand: sources
On Friday, Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif argued that the PTI must look at its list of demands and revise its six demands in reverse order.
The main opposition parties, the PPP and the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI,) were among the first to propose that instead of demanding the removal of the prime minister, the protesting PTI should focus on ensuring that concrete proof is found that the last general elections were heavily rigged in favour of the PML-N.
“I think it’s a good suggestion for the PTI leadership to accept that its demand for the prime minister’s resignation must come at the end,” Khawaja Asif told the media outside the parliament house.
He argued that the government had never opposed a free and fair investigation process but the political parties had to sit together to figure out how this could be done.
But he conceded that a “peaceful and trustworthy environment which is a must for resolving such controversial issues remains absent”.
Similar words had been uttered by opposition leaders earlier in the week.
For instance, the leader of the opposition Syed Khursheed Shah had on Thursday said that, “If there was considerable evidence that some players were involved in rigging the election in favour of the ruling party, we will support PTI’s main demand, which is the resignation of the prime minister.”
He had said this after presiding over a meeting of the heads of parliamentary parties of the two houses. The parties attending the meeting had agreed on electoral reforms and a probe into the rigging of the elections, as being demanded by the PTI.
It was with reference to PTI’s number one demand — the resignation of the prime minister — that Mr Shah had made this suggestion.
The other PTI demands are: re-election after dissolution of the assemblies, electoral reforms, an impartial caretaker set-up with the consensus of all the parties, the resignation of all members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and punishment for all those found guilty of election rigging.
The JI General Secretary Liaquat Baloch has also called for a similar review of the PTI’s demands.
Speaking outside the parliament house on Thursday, Mr Baloch said, “Let an independent commission investigate the charges which the PTI levels against the officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan. And if proven right, we will stand beside Imran Khan in his demands, including the one asking the prime minister to resign.”
A PTI insider told Dawn that the party leadership during its core committee meeting on Friday discussed whether or not it should revise the order of the six demands.
But at the end, the committee decided to stick to the current order of its demands and wait for the government’s response.
Oddly enough on Friday, the party’s core committee held a meeting on top of the container, under the blazing sun and the glare of the news cameras.
Talking to Dawn, Shafqat Mehmood, who won a seat from Lahore on a PTI ticket and has now submitted his resignation to the Speaker, said the party was waiting for a formal response to its six demands.
The demands were handed over to the government on Wednesday night.
“The PTI is pushing for the removal of the prime minister which is the only way to enforce early elections which the party is aiming for.”
However, when he was pushed to explain what the party may compromise on, he said, “Once you get into talks, the contesting parties try to find some middle ground.”
However, he then added that the PTI’s core committee had resolved to stand behind Imran Khan in his effort to remove “this corrupt government”.
Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014
