Before any talks can begin, opposition leader Omar Ayub Khan stated on the National Assembly (NA) floor that the government must free all political detainees, including PTI founder Imran Khan.
Ayub stated that the government should first free all political leaders and employees who are in custody and that the government’s offer of negotiations is not sincere. Only then, he said, can there be real conversation.PM Shehbaz Sharif called leaders of the opposition to a conversation earlier in the day to explore strategies for moving the nation forward.
Together, let’s push the nation forward. Let’s have a conversation for the benefit of the nation. Speaking to the National Assembly here, the prime minister said that there was no other course of action.
He recalled that he had previously asked the political parties to come to an agreement on a Charter of Economy, but that suggestion had been derided for purely partisan reasons.
The prime minister also related how he was victimized and how his mother’s death landed him in jail.
He claimed that even though he had backbone problems and had survived cancer, he was nevertheless transported to court in a regular jail vehicle, which made his condition worse, but he never voiced any complaints.
Even though they were not on trial, other PML-N leaders, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz, were subjected to degrading treatment. However, he declared that after all the abuse he had endured, he would never want his political rivals to go through anything like this.
Prior to this, the Supreme Court of Pakistan counseled PTI founder Imran Khan to start a conversation with politicians as Imran Khan was testifying in court about accountability laws.
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PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar, however, stated that while Imran Khan, the party’s founder, is open to talks, he won’t meet with lawmakers he refers to as “mandate thieves.”
Barrister Gohar claimed that the PTI chairman, who has been detained for the past 11 months without being found guilty, has been the target of more than 200 fictitious cases brought by the government.