Government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf negotiating committees began talks in Islamabad on Friday as political tensions continued ahead of PTI’s planned October 4 march on the capital.
The two sides met at National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq’s office after the government and the Pakistan Peoples Party formed a joint committee to engage the opposition.
Government representatives reported at the meeting included Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Adviser to the Prime Minister Amir Muqam, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, PPP leaders Naveed Qamar and Ejaz Jakhrani, State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry and Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.
The opposition negotiating committee included PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Raja Nasir Abbas, Asad Qaiser, Salman Akram Raja, Aamir Dogar and Haleem Adil Sheikh.
The talks followed a decision to open a formal political channel as the government and PTI remained at odds over the planned march. PTI had initially announced the protest for September 27 before postponing it to October 4.
Before the negotiations, government representatives publicly called for dialogue and expressed hope that the opposition would withdraw the march. Opposition representatives, meanwhile, said they would participate in talks without preconditions and called for political consensus.
Barrister Gohar said the opposition would approach the negotiations sincerely and that decisions on the march and subsequent steps would depend on the government’s response to its concerns.
The negotiations do not, at this stage, amount to an agreement to cancel the October 4 march. PTI leaders have continued to present the protest as planned unless their concerns are addressed.
The government-PTI meeting came after President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the political situation and a joint government-PPP delegation was formed to engage the PTI leadership.
The broader dispute has also involved tensions between the federal government and the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. Federal officials have discussed constitutional options in the province, while PTI and other opposition figures have opposed measures such as governor’s rule or an emergency and called for political engagement instead.
With the October 4 march still formally on the opposition’s calendar, the immediate significance of the talks is the opening of a direct negotiating channel between the government and PTI. Whether that dialogue changes the protest plan will depend on subsequent negotiations and decisions by the parties involved.