ISLAMABAD: Pakhtun­khwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) president Mehmood Khan Achakzai on Monday declared on the floor of the National Assembly that he was ready to engage in talks with the ‘establishment’ for the sake of the supremacy of constitution and to bring the country out of the prevailing crisis.

The unexpected announcement for the treasury members came in response to a fiery speech by Defence Minister and PML-N stalwart Khawaja Asif who had asked Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to seek a reply from the PkMAP chief, who had been nominated by the opposition PTI for a dialogue, if he was willing to hold talks with the establishment.

Castigating the PTI leaders over their repeated statements that they would not talk to the political parties sitting in parliament and would only like to have dialogue with the army, the defence minister threw the question towards Mr Achakzai, perhaps expecting that he would refuse to talk to the establishment because of his strong narrative that politicians should not drag the army into politics.

“I will hold negotiations. I will talk to every institution. I will also talk to the establishment, but …. we do not want to talk to them and ask them to provide us guidance. We are to provide them honourable retreat,” said Mr Achakzai amid desk-thumping by the opposition members.

Hard hitting remarks came in response to fiery speech by defence minister

“We will tell the establishment that you are our establishment. You are dear to us. You are our army, our institution. Please be kind with us and [it’s] enough. Sit with us.

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“The supremacy of the constitution is the only solution and this whole house has consensus on this,” he said, adding that all the parties and leaders, including PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Zardari, believe in it. He said if this parliament would be made a true supreme institution through democratic elections, the country would come out of the crises.

Mr Achakzai said the politicians and the army and everyone was responsible for the present situation and the time had come to sit together, admit the past mistakes and move forward. He said on one hand Nawaz Sharif stressed the need for a political dialogue, on the other “you people start stabbing each other in the back”.

The PkMAP chief asked the speaker not to behave as a member of PML-N and become a true custodian of the house. He asked the speaker to play a role and make his party leadership realise that there is a need for dialogue with all the parties and institutions.

“Come and sit together, including the Chief of Army Staff. We should sit together to find the solution to the prevailing crisis, which has not descended from the sky,” he went on saying.

The debate on the political dialogue started when opposition leader Omar Ayub Khan, on a point of order, refuted the claim of Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal that Imran Khan was begging for a deal.

“Imran Khan has never got NRO and he will never get it,” said the opposition leader.

Responding to the opposition leader’s speech, the defence minister reiterated that Mr Khan was “desperate” to strike a deal. He said PTI’s information secretary Raoof Hassan was desperately begging before the establishment whereas Imran Khan had been issuing statements from jail on a daily basis that he would only talk to the army. He said they should ask Mr Achakzai if he was willing to talk to the establishment on behalf of PTI which was not ready to sit with any political party and only looking towards the establishment for reconciliation.

He said PTI wanted to talk to those who had “nourished the party”, forgetting that it no longer had the support of former ISI heads Shuja Pasha and Faiz Hameed, and former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.

On Saturday, former prime minister and PML-N president Nawaz Sharif had suggested an across-the-board dialogue to pull the country out of crisis. However, the PTI next day ruled out the possibility of direct talks with the PML-N and favoured negotiations with the establishment instead.

Later, the National Assembly passed four bills amid noisy protest by the opposition.

The bills passed were the Apostille Bills 2024, the Cannabis Control and Regulatory Authority Bill 2024, the Establishment of Telecommunication Appellate Tribunal Bill 2024 and the Privatisation Commission (Amendment) Bill 2024.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2024