ISLAMABAD: Shortly after Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the besieged PM House, the government ordered inclusion of an anti-terrorism clause in the charges levelled against the prime minister and 20 other accused in the FIR related to the June 17 Lahore Model Town incident.

The government also took steps towards resumption of dialogue with protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

There were indications that the government would re-start the dialogue with the PAT and PTI through an opposition-led initiative for which back-channel contacts were started.

The government had directed to remove objections relating to the FIR of the Model Town incident as raised by PAT, a government spokesman said.

Importantly the instructions for adding Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act to the charges in the Model Town FIR were given before the prime minister’s meeting with parliamentary parties chiefs, which immediately followed the meeting with Gen Sharif.

Neither side said anything about what was discussed at the about two-hour meeting except for denying a news report that PM Sharif was either quitting or going on leave.

The meeting took place a day after the army held an extraordinary meeting of the Corps Commanders and the Prime Minister chaired a ‘high-level’ meeting to devise a strategy for dealing with the protests.

A military source said that Gen Sharif reiterated the need for a political settlement and dialogue with the protesting parties in his meeting with the prime minister.

The prime minister and the army chief reportedly discussed various options for ending the deadlock in dialogue between the protesters and the government — among which was adding the anti-terrorism clause to the Model Town FIR.

Moreover, by late night there were reports of back-channel contacts between the government and the two protesting parties to pave the way for resumption of the stalled negotiations.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2014