ISLAMABAD: PTI’s negotiating team has decided to pursue two initial demands in its upcoming meeting with a government team, scheduled to be held later this week, in a bid to lay ground-work for taking the dialogue process forward.

A notification issued by the NA Secretariat on Monday said that National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will chair an in-camera meeting between the negotiating teams of federal government and PTI on Jan 2, Dawn.com reported. This will be the second meeting between the two sides.

According to the notification, Mr Sadiq “will chair a 2nd meeting (in-camera) on negotiations betw­een Treasury and Opposition on Thursday, the 2nd January, 2025 at 11:30am” at the Parliament House.

Meanwhile, sources said that the PTI had decided to limit itself to two initial demands in the talks scheduled for Thursday; the release of under trial political prisoners and the formation of a judicial commission to probe the events of May 9, 2023 and Nov 26.

NA speaker will chair in-camera meeting, scheduled for Thursday at Parliament House

Background discussions with party leaders revealed that it was annoyed by the “illogical and absurd statements” about the talks, being issued by government ministers, and wanted the ruling party to review its “nonsensical approach and create a favourable environment for talks”.

Sources said the party will share these demands with the government in writing on Jan 2, and is hoping for a resolution of these issues as confidence-building measures, before moving forward.

Earlier, Sunni Ittehad Council Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza — one of the PTI’s main parliamentary allies — announced that the party would give the government until Jan 31 to conclude the ongoing negotiations.

“The cut-off date for negotiations is Jan 31. On January 2, when our committee meets the government to continue the negotiations, Omar Ayub will formally give them this deadline,” he had said.

Earlier this month, PTI founder Imran Khan had formed a committee to negotiate with the government over the party’s demands, which included Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur and SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza.

However, at the last meeting, the PTI side was only represented by Mr Qaiser, the SIC chief and MWM’s Senator Raja Nasir Abbas.

Meanwhile, the team formed by PM Shehbaz Sharif to negotiate with the PTI includes Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, PM’s political aide Rana Sanaullah, Senator Irfan Siddiqui (who has also been named spokesperson for the government team), PPP’s Raja Parvez Ashraf and Naveed Qamar, and IPP leader Aleem Khan, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Salik Hussain, Balochistan Awami Party’s Sardar Khalid Magsi and MQM-P’s Farooq Sattar.

Nadir Guramani in Islamabad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024