PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Munawar Hassan on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We believe that the response of the provincial government regarding resolution of problems of the people is very slow and our party is in contact with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on this issue,” he told a news conference at Al Markaz-i-Islami, the party provincial headquarters, here.

KP senior minister Sirajul Haq, JI central general secretary Liaquat Baloch and other senior leaders of the party were also present on the occasion.

JI is the major coalition partner of the ruling PTI in the province with three ministers in the provincial cabinet.

Mr Hassan said the provincial government’s performance didn’t meet his party’s expectations.

About Imran Khan’s statement that he would dismiss his government in the province if he was push to the wall, the JI leader said the PTI chief should avoid issuing unnecessary statements.

“It will be better to avoid making such statements because he (Imran) is in the government and sometimes, such statements create complications instead of resolving problems,” he said.

The JI chief said the May 11 general elections were engineered and the situation would become clear very soon.

He said it was very strange that political parties, which had won elections, had begun raising hue and cry over the election results and did not accept them.

“This is happening for the first time that political parties, which won polls, are not satisfied with the results,” he said.

Mr Hassan opposed military operation in Karachi and said military action could further complicate situation in Sindh.

He said the federal government should not reject the Taliban’s offer for peace talks.

“The secular lobby in the country is pressuring the government to reject the Taliban dialogue offer. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should give positive response to the Taliban,” he said.

The JI chief, however, said the government should take political forces and other stakeholders into confidence before beginning negotiations with the Taliban for peace.

He said if the government was reluctant to hold direct talks with the Taliban, then it should use the ‘backdoor channel’ as a confidence building measure.

“Table talk is the only channel through which disputes are resolved across the world,” he said.

Mr Hassan said the US and the country’s secular lobby were main hurdles to the government’s peace talks with the Taliban.

He welcomed the dialogue between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Islamabad and his party would support every move meant to bring peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The JI chief criticised the prime minister for declaring that in the May 11 elections, the people had given Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz the mandate to boost bilateral ties with India.

“It is ridiculous. Nawaz Sharif can even hold referendum on this issue to know the people’s sentiments,” he said, adding that the voters did not let PML-N make a compromise on Kashmir dispute.

Mr Hassan said Pakistan should give a tit-for-tat response to Indian aggression on the Line of Control.

He criticised castigated the federal government for borrowing loans from International Monetary Fund and other lending agencies.