ISLAMABAD: The opposition PTI on Saturday said that former prime minister Imran Khan was not seeking relief for himself in ongoing negotiations with the government.

Addressing a press conference at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House here, Senator Shibli Faraz, National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub and Asad Qaiser accused the government of creating an impression that the PTI founder was trying to get relief for himself in the garb of talks.

Mr Faraz said PTI is a peaceful political party and would continue its struggle under the law and the Constitution. The PTI has fixed Jan 31 as a cut-off date for the outcome of these talks.

The former ruling party claimed that then-army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had proposed a dialogue with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan during a meeting of the National Security Committee.

Ayub says ex-army chief Bajwa suggested dialogue with Taliban in 2021

It may be recalled that the military spo­k­e­s­person on Friday criticised the then PTI government for its 2021 decision to initiate talks with the banned TTP.

Mr Ayub said: “On November 8, 2021, while Imran Khan was the prime minister, all government and opposition lawmakers were taken into confidence by Gen Bajwa, then-DG ISI Faiz Hameed, and ISPR DG Babar Iftikhar.”

He added that “Gen Bajwa, while replying to questions of the then-opposition members, had said that every conflict and war ends with a dialogue and also shared that negotiations will be held with the TTP.”

According to the PTI leader, then opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Khawaja Asif, Naveed Qamar, Ahsan Iqbal, and others also attended the high-level meeting.

The PTI leader claimed that petroleum products to the tune of Rs550 billion were being smuggled into Pakistan every year. He claimed that “local officers” were not sitting at the borders of Baloch­istan and Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa so it should be investigated who was inv­o­lved in this smuggling.

Omar Ayub also said that KP was not getting its share.

While talking about the May 9 and Nov 26 violence, the PTI leader demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate these incidents. He claimed that all workers of PTI would be eventually released because they were “innocent”.

Mr Qaiser said that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were suffering because of tensions with Afghanistan, as their livelihood was linked to the border with Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024