–Joint Opp body to meet on Monday night to deliberate decision over dialogue offer
ISLAMABAD: The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Sunday canceled a meeting with a government committee a day after the party agreed to meet the delegation led by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to holds talks over the anti-government protest.
On Saturday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government reached out to the JUI-F for the first round of talks in a bid to stop the religio-political party from marching on to the federal capital on October 31.
At the time, JUI-F senior leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri had said that the party would see what the government would offer them but the final decision on holding the march rested with Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
He added that the JUI-F could refer the government’s proposals to the Rahber Committee but it would continue to stick to its demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In the latest development, the JUI-F said the final decision on whether to hold talks with the government would be taken by the Rehbar Committee in a meeting on Oct 21, as party chief Fazlur Rehman was against taking a unilateral decision over the issue.
According to sources: “JUI-F believes that the impression being given that they [JUI-F] directly want to negotiate with the government. To eliminate this impression, Fazl contacted all the opposition leaders and taken them into confidence and told them the Rahbar Committee will make a decision regarding the talks.”
The development was confirmed by Haideri, who hoped that the Senate chief would approach the joint opposition committee with the talks offer.
The talks had come hours after Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak had told a press conference warning Maulana Fazl of state’s might if his party refused to come to the table points.
Addressing the presser along with Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood at Parliament House, Khattak had said that the opposition, rather than showing willingness or taking any steps to solve issues, is bent on its demand for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation.
Making it clear that the issue of Azadi March would be resolved through dialogue between the government and JUI-F leadership, the PTI leaders had said that the government never closed doors to dialogue in its sit-in during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government’s tenure.
Making it clear that the premier’s resignation was out of question, Khattak said that the issues would be resolved through dialogue and the government’s writ would be implemented otherwise the only way forward would be to act and “make decisions according to the law”.