ISLAMABAD – The talks between the PPP and PML-N on implementation of the 10-point reforms agenda ended in a deadlock on Tuesday with both sides claiming progress but not sharing specifics, while PML-N chief expressed disappointment at the government’s performance in the implementation of the agenda, saying that it’s time the people decide the future course of action.
Addressing reporters after the talks, PML-N team leader Senator Ishaq Dar did not take a hard line saying it was not that nothing had been achieved. “All glasses are not empty,” he said, adding that the PML-N team would present its report to the party leadership on Friday. While Dar did not commit that the dialogue had failed, he hoped to make headway before the 45-day deadline ended.
Contrary to Dar’s expectation, his party chief Nawaz Sharif expressed dissatisfaction over the engagement with the government. Addressing flood survivors in Kot Mithan, Nawaz said, “We have been patient… the deadline of 45 days has passed but no satisfactory answer has been given yet.” He added that the government continued to give false statements but “we never lost hope”.
Insiders said the PML-N was not ready to extend the deadline and in case the government did not come up with some tangible solution, the alliance between the two parties in Punjab would have to break. Talking to reporters, Ishaq Dar said, “All the 10 glasses of water are not filled, some are half filled and some may be filled to the brim.”
He said negotiating teams of the PPP and PML-N would take their respective leaderships into confidence and it would be their prerogative to share the actual details with the public. He said the PML-N leadership had already convened a meeting of its central organising committee on February 25 and his team would present a final report on the talks based on factual position.
“The government still has 48 hours before the 45-day deadline expires and if there is progress on any point the government can inform the PML-N,” he said. Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who was heading the government’s side in the talks, also said they would present the progress report to their party leadership.
“Both sides agreed to present the reports to their leadership,” he added.He said in Tuesday’s meeting, they discussed the expenditures of the provincial governments apart from discussing the 10 points. “We have worked on the agenda with sincerity,” he said.
