PTI cannot pressure the government into accepting demands by holding the state “hostage” and creating political instability, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Sanaullah said that the government would not allow the opposition to use talks as a “tool” for making political demands.

“Doors for talks are open,” Sanaullah said, recalling Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks yesterday calling on the PTI leadership to sit down for talks and abandon their protest plans.

However, Sanaullah said, negotiations could not be used to strong-arm the government.

The PML-N leader described PTI as having been “successful” in obstructing peace. Politics had been transformed into a culture of “below the belt” jabs at each other and a “culture of intolerance”, he lamented.

On Sunday, hours-long negotiations between the government and the opposition during a second round of talks ended in a “deadlock”. The meeting at Parliament House began Saturday afternoon, with discussions focusing on the PTI’s planned Oct 4 march to Islamabad.

Later on Monday, PTI leaders declared that reconciliation with the government was not possible without including incarcerated party founder Imran Khan in the dialogue process.

They said that another reason for the failure of the talks was that the government was not willing to pursue a collective strategy against terrorism.

The PM’s adviser contended that PTI’s stance that it was being left out of decisions on counterterrorism policy was “completely wrong” and “misleading”.

He added that the reasons for the deadlock in talks have been misinterpreted.

“The policy on countering terrorism is already being acted upon,” Sanaullah noted, referring to intelligence-based operations (IBOs) being carried out on a daily basis with “huge success”.

He went on to claim that PTI was against such IBOs.

In June 2024, the government announced a reinvigorated “Operation Azm-i-Istehkam” but, following criticism, clarified shortly later that it would only entail intensifying ongoing IBOs and rebranded it as “Vision Azm-i-Istehkam”.

Sanaullah pointed out that the armed forces and law enforcement agencies have been sacrificing their lives to keep the operations going.

The PM’s adviser said it was being falsely claimed that new military operations would be undertaken and more people would be displaced. He clarified that the already ongoing IBOs were supposed to continue under the existing counterterrorism policy.

Sanaullah further said that Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had previously clarified that no one would be internally displaced as a result of the operations.

‘Politics over national interest’

Speaking on the matter of the ongoing rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Sanaullah said that Islamabad had been “fair” in demanding that the Afghan government not allow its land to be used for terrorist activities in Pakistan.

He also elaborated on past talks with the Afghan authorities, saying that in the multiple rounds of dialogue, the Afghan interim government had accepted evidence presented by Pakistan for terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan as true.

However, he said, the Afghan Taliban had refused to guarantee that their land would not be used for terror attacks against Pakistan.

“Pakistan’s policy is that it has the right to neutralise training camps or any activity on Afghan land that could cause terrorism in Pakistan later on,” Sanaullah stated.

The policy was based on experiences from the past 40 years and more, he added.

The PML-N leader contended that PTI was the only party opposed to the policy because it wanted to prioritise its politics over national interest.

During his press conference, the PM’s adviser recalled PTI’s past protests in Islamabad, including in 2022 and 2024.

Sanaullah highlighted the recent rise in terrorism incidents, stressing that martyrs included children, civilians and soldiers from KP.

“On one hand, the martyrs’ bodies were lying there, and on the other hand, the entire provincial government was playing the dhol and chanting slogans, urging people to join the march on Islamabad.”

The attitude of the KP government was “unacceptable”, the PML-N leader declared, adding that the people in the province had also condemned it.

“Prioritising personal and political agendas over national interest is not permissible by law, the Constitution or political ethics,” Sanaullah remarked.

He criticised the KP government’s performance, claiming governance and working for the betterment of the people was not on PTI’s agenda.