ISLAMABAD: The government and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) again failed on Saturday to reach an agreement on the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the judicial commission likely to be set up to look into alleged rigging in last year’s elections.

Avoiding media glare, the two sides met at the residence of PTI General Secretary Jahangir Tareen.

The government side did not issue any statement about the proceedings of the meeting.

However, PTI spokesperson Dr Shireen Mazari said in a brief press release, “The PTI and government teams resumed their negotiations this morning. While some progress was made, there was no agreement on the outstanding core issues.”

It further said, “Both teams have decided to go back to their respective leadership and update them on the present status before meeting again on Tuesday”.

Later, Mr Tareen talking to media personnel at Bani Gala, the residence of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, said the party chief had already shown enough flexibility and now the ball was in the government’s court.

Sources from the two sides said that neither the government nor the PTI was willing to move even an inch on the issue of definition of rigging.

The PTI is of the view that if rigging on the selected number of seats which the proposed judicial commission will investigate is proven then the government should go home.

The government on its part insists that cases of rigging should only be dealt with at constituency to constituency level.

“The government is open for re-election on as many number of seats as probed by the commission if it finds out that election on these constituencies were marred by rigging,” a federal minister told Dawn. And similarly, if the PTI could prove that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had manipulated election results with the help of a former chief justice and officials of Election Commission of Pakistan “we are willing to go home”, the minister said.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2014