PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf central leader and MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram on Thursday said his party would never withdraw its demands shared with the federal government during talks.

“Our leader [PTI founder Imran Khan] has told us not to retreat a single inch [from demands],” Mr Akram told reporters here.

The PTI leader said that his party had decided to sit down with the government for the country’s better future.

He said that nobody could force the PTI into holding dialogue with the government.

MNA says party decided about talks for country’s better future

Mr Akram said that a meaningful dialogue was always held with the one, who could deliver. He confirmed a meeting between PTI chairman Barrister Gohar and the army chief and said that there was nothing wrong about that interaction.

“Our party leadership met with the military leadership of our country and not the rival country’s,” he said.

The PTI leader also said that the incarcerated PTI founder and his wife were being implicated in bogus cases.

He said that Imran Khan would continue standing with the truth and nobody could harm him.

Mr Akram said that the documents submitted by Bahria Town in the 190 million pounds Al-Qadir Trust case had made it clear that the government lacked the authority to keep the said amount in government treasury and that the amount was sent to the government treasury on the Supreme Court’s orders.

He said that the government thought that the PTI would refuse to hold negotiations with it, but the party acted otherwise.

The PTI leader insisted that the day the dialogue began, an organised propaganda was launched to malign Imran Khan and his family. “We went for talks with a positive mind and have given the government our demands in writing,” he said.

Mr Akram said that the government shouldn’t think that it could silence the PTI in the name of negotiations. He said that his party would continue standing against cruelty and that the rulers won’t be allowed to run away from the dialogue.

The PTI leader resented the alleged killings of party workers during a police crackdown in Islamabad’s D-Chowk and complained that postmortem was performed on just one body.

He added that he had come to Peshawar fearing arrest by the police in the Punjab province.

Mr Akram said that hundreds of injured PTI workers “disappeared” and reached Peshawar to prevent arrest.

He also accused the federal government’s law-enforcement agencies of cordoning off hospitals in Islamabad.

The PTI lawmaker complained that the report of the postmortem done on the body wasn’t shared with the family, while the matter had been pending decision by the court.

He claimed that the PTI’s eight workers, who lost lives in the police crackdown at D-Chowk, belonged to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mr Akram alleged that the government tried to pressure the “slain” PTI workers’ family members doing business in Punjab.

He added that one of the injured PTI workers was paralysed, while another, who was shot in the face, couldn’t speak.

Referring to a report, the PTI leader complained that the country reported negative industrial growth in November last year, while the overall growth in the last five months was a minimum two per cent.

He also criticised the federal government over brain drain and claimed that 1.8 million people had left the country in the last few years.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2025