ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday held several meetings with party leaders and senior military officials.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) stalwart Jehangir Tareen called on the prime minster in his office and, according to an official press release, they discussed the current political situation in the country and party affairs.

The prime minister also met Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and discussed political matters and issues related to coalition partners.

Inside sources said that PM Khan has tasked Mr Tareen to pacify the disgruntled government allies — Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).

PM holds meetings with Sindh governor, ISI chief

They said Mr Tareen apprised the prime minister all issues of the disgruntled allies had almost been resolved when he was dealing with them. He assured the prime minister that all reservations of the coalition partners would be addressed.

Last month, PM Khan had formed three separate committees to hold talks with the PML-Q, MQM, and Baloch leaders. In all committees Mr Tareen had a major role, but suddenly he was sent out of dialogue process and his absence in the negotiation teams was strongly rejected by PML-Q.

Now the Q-League had refused to meet the government unless their demands already accepted by the government were met.

PML-Q’s information secretary Kamil Ali Agha said his party would not meet any government’s committee if the already accepted agreement between PML-Q and the government was met. “We have signed a written agreement with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on which the government’s previous committee, in which Jehangir Tareen was a member, had started implementation, but later another committee was formed and sabotaged the implementation process,” he added.

The sources said the prime minister had tasked Governor Imran Ismail to hold talks with MQM and GDA leaders.

One of the common complaints of the allied parties is that no development activities were being done in their constituencies, inflation is unprecedented and they [allied parties] are not being taken on board by the ruling PTI in decision making process.

Later, the prime minister visited the residence of senior PTI leaders and his close aide Naeemul Haq to inquire about his health.

Mr Haq is suffering from cancer and said to be in a critical condition.

PM meets ISI DG: The prime minister also met the director general of country’s premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt Gen Faiz Hamid.

An official handout said security issues were discussed during the meeting.

The chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, called on PM Khan and briefed him on progress on various on-going CPEC projects.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2020