ISLAMABAD: After meeting for nearly four hours at Jahangir Tareen’s residence, government and PTI negotiators bore long faces as they emerged from talks on Friday. Following their less-than-successful session, the only announcement the two sides made was that they were going to meet again on Saturday.

Ishaq Dar, who leads the government team, tried to put a positive spin on the outlook from the meeting, saying that the two sides held a clause-by-clause discussion over the proposed ordinance for the constitution of a judicial commission. He said that both sides saw eye-to-eye on most proposals, save for three clauses. However, he did not elaborate what the points of contention were.

PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, however, was less optimistic and warned that “any further delays in clinching an agreement will spoil the spirit of the political consensus”.

He also did not elaborate what the points of disagreement between the two sides were.

Before heading into talks on Friday evening, both sides expressed the hope that they would clinch a deal soon. However, as the meeting dragged on, it became obvious to the waiting journalists that the talks were heading nowhere.

One of the participants of the meeting told Dawn that both sides had locked horns over; firstly, the definition of rigging and, secondly, the outcome of the judicial commission’s findings.

If the commission finds that rigging has been committed in a specific number of constituencies, which both sides agree to investigate, PTI wants that this should be taken as a clear indicator that there was concerted effort to rig the polls and, as a result, wants the entire government to go home. However, the government maintains that cases of rigging should be dealt at the constituency level.

PTI also insists that the proposed commission should be given a timeframe within which to submit its findings, where­as the government argues that this should be left up to the commission members. Talking to Dawn, a government minister said that the PTI’s demand was unrealistic. “How can rigging in a certain number of constituencies be used to discredit the entire electoral process,” the minister asked rhetorically.

However, senior PTI leader and MNA Shafqat Mehmood told Dawn that PTI’s only aim was to determine whether the last general elections were held in a free and fair manner, as explained in Article 218(3) of the Constitution. The article states: “It shall be the duty of the Election Commission to organise and conduct the election and to make such arrangements as are necessary to ensure that the election is conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law, and that corrupt practices are guarded against.”

Responding to reporters’ questions after the meeting, Mr Qureshi said, “I came to this meeting with great hope, but unfortunately, I am going back dejected.”

He also warned Mr Dar and Ahsan Iqbal that the government shouldn’t linger on taking a decision in the matter.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2014