Ball in Sharif’s court as govt, PTI discuss proposals

• Dar says agreement reached on all points except PM’s resignation, which is non-negotiable 
• Qureshi says PTI team has conveyed party’s final position to govt committee

The government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) concluded their twelfth round of negotiations on Monday night, with both sides reaching an agreement on almost all points put forward by the PTI team, except the demand for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, lead government negotiator, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that PTI team had expressed its final position on one of their demands while the other, the PM’s resignation, is non-negotiable for the government side.
“We will discuss the PTI’s ‘other demand’ with our leadership and allied parties and get back to them, however we have made it clear to them that there will be no discussion on the PM’s resignation,” said Dar.
Meanwhile, PTI’s lead negotiator, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said they had completed discussions on the papers that they had exchanged and that PTI had conveyed their final position to the government committee.
“It is now up to the government to take a final decision,” he said, without elaborating the ‘other’ point which would be discussed by the government and its allies.
Earlier in the day, Shah Mehmood Qureshi had told journalists that progress had been made on various points of PTI’s demands although some issues still had to be resolved.
The PTI leader said that his party supported democracy and wanted to strengthen it by their reforms agenda. He said that PTI was pursuing dialogue process with a positive approach and his party had shown flexibility at various levels to avoid deadlock.
PAT WANTS TO TALK, IQBAL URGES FLOOD RELIEF:
Separately, as Monday’s round of negotiations between PAT and government ended, PAT leader Raheeq Abbasi told the journalists that PAT wanted the problems to be resolved through negotiations.
Flanked by his talks partner Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali and the government’s side comprising Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal and Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Abbasi told the press conference that that his party had realised the problems of the people living in the flood-hit areas and will do everything on party level to help the victims.
The planning minister endorsed PAT leader’s views, saying that both sides wanted the issues to be resolved through negotiations and another round in this regard will be held today at 4pm.
“We should set aside our disputes and focus on helping people affected by floods and rains,” the minister said, emphasising that the first priority should be to help the flood-hit people.