ISLAMABAD: The only agreement so far is to continue talking, say the government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

After a day of quiet indifference, the two sides finally resumed talks, late at night on Friday, at the hotel where they had first held a meeting on Wednesday night.

But the second round also ended with a simple promise to meet again on Saturday.

Apparently all that happened on Friday was that the government explained its point of view at which the PTI expressed its reservations and the two sides bid farewell.

Apart from announcing their intent to meet again, the political leaders refused to say much else and left the curious journalists dissatisfied.

The short announcement was made by PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The government side — Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, ministers Pervez Rasheed, Ahsan Iqbal, retired Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch and Zahid Hamid — arrived first and after some time Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Javed Hashmi, Asad Umar, Dr Arif Alvi, Jehangir Tareen and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak — arrived.

Mr Qureshi, as he went into the talks, reiterated that the resignation of the prime minister remained the party’s main demand, adding that Leader of Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah had also acknowledged that the demands were just; he simply objected to their order.

He and Javed Hashmi added that like Asif Zardari the PTI too did not want to derail democracy.

They both then explained that they were here to hear the government’s point of view on the requests that had been presented on Wednesday.

The hectic negotiations that the government was involved in were driven home by Haider Abbas Rizvi’s arrival half way through the meeting.

He had turned up to get Ahsan Iqbal and Qadir Baloch, as he was rushing to the negotiations with PAT and didn’t want to deal with the second set of negotiations all alone — Ejazul Haq, the only other member of the government team set up to talk to Dr Tahirul Qadri was out of Islamabad. Iqbal and Baloch are also part of the negotiating team.

PTI’s last card

Earlier in the day, the PTI played its last card when it handed in its resignations.

PTI parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, submitted the resignations of the party legislators to the Speaker’s office, where they will be seen by Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Monday because he had left for Lahore by the time they were handed in.

When asked how many resignations were handed in, Mr Shah surprisingly responded, “I didn’t count them.”

Dr Arif Alvi later explained that a few party legislators couldn’t submit their resignations, as they were out of the country. He too refused to divulge how many resignations were missing.

The PTI has 34 MNAs — 27 on directly elected seats, six on reserved and one minority legislator.

However, Dawn has learnt that seven resignations were missing.

“At the Speaker’s Office, Mr Qureshi counted all the resignations before putting them in an envelope that he sealed,” a source said.

The speaker can verify the resignations before he announces it to the house and asks secretary National Assembly to take further action.

Critics argued that the move to hand over the resignations showed that the party was trying to further ratchet up the pressure, as the government appeared to be unmoved.

“Be it within the parliament house or outside, the PTI has isolated itself from other political forces of the country. There is no indication how the party plans to force the prime minister’s resignation and then ensure fresh elections and electoral reforms under an impartial caretaker government,” remarked one observer.

Even if the government does resign, the PTI has provided no details on how the caretaker government will be formed?

But such questions do not seem to bother the party on a mission.

For instance, Mr Qureshi contended that like any other political force of the country, the PTI was also in favour of the supremacy of the constitution and parliament, provided the democracy was genuine.

He went on to say, “Some people have doubts in their minds that the PTI will not resign from the National Assembly but here we are. The PTI will not shy from any sacrifice in order to bring true democracy to the country.”

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014