ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf has categorically stated that while it is ready for talks with the government, the ruling party should demonstrate a level of seriousness and pick up the talks where both sides left off.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the party’s central executive committee on Tuesday, party spokesperson Shireen Mazari said the government had not, formally or informally, contacted the party for a resumption of dialogue and stressed that the PTI would not accept ‘conditional talks’.

Sources told Dawn that earlier the core committee had decided that PTI’s ‘Plan C’ — of shutting down various cities and eventually the entire country — would only be called off after a written agreement was signed between the two sides on the formation of a judicial commission to investigate allegations of rigging in the 2013 general polls and the finalisation of the commission’s terms of reference.

Also read: Govt-PTI talks — so near yet so far

The committee, which met at party chief Imran Khan’s Bani Gala residence, also passed a resolution condemning the violence in Faisalabad a day earlier and expressed profound grief over the death of Haq Nawaz, the PTI worker who the party claimed had been killed by ‘ruling party goons’.

In the resolution, the party decried the police for playing the role of a “silent spectator” and referring to incidents such as the Model Town tragedy, said that this was not the first time the PML-N had tried to sabotage the PTI’s peaceful protests.

Core committee condemns activist’s death in Faisalabad; Shah Mehmood calls on new CEC

In her remarks to the media following the meeting, Ms Mazari declared Rana Sanaullah’s press conference earlier in the day “a pack of lies”. She called for the constitution of an independent commission to probe the murder of Haq Nawaz.

ECP meeting

Also on Tuesday, a five-member PTI delegation, led by Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, called on the newly appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, to demand the reconstitution of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Briefing journalists after the meeting, Mr Qureshi said the CEC had been asked to start the process of ‘cleansing’ the commission. He claimed that the delegation had told the new CEC that all four members of the ECP were controversial figures and several political parties had little faith in them. He said that a fair delimitation of constituencies was not possible as long as they were around.

Accepting that the current CEC had a better track record, he insisted that the party was not ready to give him a blank cheque, either. However, he expressed the willingness to cooperate with the CEC in any attempt towards making electoral processes more transparent.

He also said that the PTI would not present any proposals to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms, and would rather submit a set of proposed electoral reforms directly to the ECP.

Recounting his discussion with the CEC, he said that they had talked about issues such as the magnetic ink fiasco, the printing of millions of additional ballots and the lack of ECP response on questions around the matter, as well as the role of returning officers (ROs) in 2013 polls.

Published in Dawn December 10th , 2014