PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has constituted a five-member committee for holding negotiations with ‘anyone’.

“This committee has been formed by Imran Khan himself. This is a high-powered committee and will meet anyone, who wants to meet but the final decision will be made by Khan,” Leader of Opposing in National Assembly Omar Ayub told a news conference here on Sunday.

He said that besides him, the negotiation committee included former speaker of National Assembly Asad Qaiser, PTI general secretary Salman Akram Raja, Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur and chairman of Sunni Ittehad Council Sahibzada Hamid Raza.

Mr Ayub said that demands of PTI included releasing its prisoners, holding a judicial inquiry into May 9 riots and a probe into firing at protesters in Islamabad last month.

Omar Ayub, Asad Qaiser, Salman Akram Raja, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur and Sahibzada Hamid Raza are members of the panel

“If our demands are not accepted, we will go for civil disobedience. We should not be compelled,” he said and condemned what he called racial and ethnic profiling of Pakhtuns by Punjab and Islamabad police.

He said that a jirga would be held on December 13 wherein all the political parties would be invited while international chapter of PTI would be holding rallies and prayers for the martyred PTI workers across the world on December 15.

“There is a virtual martial law in the country,” he said. He claimed that after Islamabad’s protest, 12 PTI workers were killed and more than 200 were missing or presumably dead since record went missing from hospitals. He added that more than 5,000 workers of PTI were arrested and they were still collecting information.

The leader of opposition in National Assembly accused federal government of using the weapons of US and Nato including snipers, provided to Pakistan under Coalition Support Fund in the war against terrorism, against PTI marchers.

The leader of opposition in Senate, Shibli Faraz, said on the occasion that the first mistake was stealing PTI’s February 8 mandate. “Now mistakes are being repeated after mistakes,” he added.

He said that the committee should be engaged with so that a way forward was found out to resolve the issues the country was confronted with. “Khan has done his job,” he added.

Mr Faraz said that the dialogue should be focused upon. He said whatever was happening in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a manifestation that November’s incident had a psychological impact on youth.

Mr Qaiser, who was also present during the news conference, said that holding peaceful protest was everyone’s right and National Assembly had no right to legislate as it lacked mandate.

“They legislated and imposed a ban on holding protests in Islamabad. Is Islamabad not a part of the country? They themselves are giving a narrative to those working against the state, creating uncertainty and hatred by arresting Pakhtuns, taxi drivers and insulting them,” he said.

He said that they wanted to carry on negotiations and demanded of federal government to reopen trade with Afghanistan besides giving KP its rights.

PTI central secretary information Sheikh Waqas Akram said on the occasion that they still questioned why was firing opened on peaceful marchers. “You will not sit in peace until this question is answered,” he added.

He accused Punjab and Balochistan governments of harassing relatives of killed and injured workers of PTI. He added that they could threaten people but could not defeat them.

“No taxation without representation. Why should we pay a government, which we never voted for,” he question. He added that the decision, for civil disobedience, would be observed by every single overseas Pakistani.

To a question, Mr Akram said that hospitals had refused to share postmortem report of PTI killed workers with them. He said that it was wrong that firing started when PTI workers reached D-Chowk. “The first PTI worker was shot at on CPEC route besides firing was also opened on the marches near 26 Number Chowrangi,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2024