LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that Imran Khan has gained nothing through protest politics.

Mr Sharif, who is also provincial president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N, urged the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman to come to the negotiation table for resolving political issues.

In a statement issued hours after ‘intra-family’ consultations at Raiwind here on Sunday, Shahbaz said the PTI chairman would have to adopt a political approach and attitude if he wanted to remain alive in politics.

Urging the PTI leader to come to the negotiation table, he said that in democracies decisions were made in parliament and not on roads.

He said the PML-N government had always been in favour of dialogues to resolve political issues and he personally believed that negations were the best way to settle political disputes.

“There is still time for Imran Khan to come to democracy, otherwise, he will completely lose his standing and support in politics,” the chief minister warned.

“It is never too late and Imran Khan should review his protest programme.” Mr Sharif asserted that if the cricketer-turned-politician wanted to bring a change in the country, he should have started this process immediately after taking over the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2014