The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) negotiators Saturday proposed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should resign for a month to allow an independent probe into alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections, but the government team has for now ruled out conceding to any such demand.
Talking to reporters after concluding the third round of talks with the government talks committee, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the prime minister should step aside until the time a judicial commission investigates his party’s rigging allegations. He said that a parliamentary committee has been formed for electoral reforms and that PTI has expressed its willingness to participate in the process.
“We have accepted the government’s proposal of setting up of a judicial commission subject to certain conditions, which includes resignation of PM Sharif to keep the environment uninfluenced,” he said, claiming that democracy will not be derailed through his party’s demands.
“We haven’t talked about dissolution of assemblies or formation of a national government.”
Meanwhile, Ahsan Iqbal, who is a member of government’s negotiating team, told the media that resignation of PM Sharif was not on the cards. He said that his party was ready to resolve the issue according to the law and constitution but not to anyone’s stubbornness.
Iqbal said the parliament and provincial assemblies have passed unanimous resolutions rejecting the politics of agitation and demands of the PM’s resignations and dissolution of assemblies.
“The lawyers across the country have also shown unity with political forces and rejected PTI and PAT’s unconstitutional demands,” he added.