Government in off-the-record contact with some PTI leaders, says Sanaullah

The government remains in "off-the-record" contact with some Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah has said, but he declined to name them, saying disclosure could damage their standing inside their own party.

Speaking on Geo News programme "Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath", Sanaullah said the contacts took place by telephone from time to time and also during sittings of the National Assembly and the Senate. Once those discussions take concrete shape, he said, the government is prepared to move to formal, on-the-record negotiations.

Asked what was preventing the informal contacts from turning into formal talks, the adviser pointed to divisions inside PTI over the negotiation process. He said PTI meetings had discussed the previous round of talks being "sabotaged", and claimed that some party figures who wanted those talks to succeed had faced trolling and pressure that stopped them from speaking out.

Sanaullah said the appropriate first step towards reviving the stalled dialogue would be a meeting between the prime minister, as Leader of the House, and Leader of the Opposition Mahmood Khan Achakzai. He rejected the opposition leader's reluctance to meet the premier at the Prime Minister's House, saying there was "no logic" in that position, and noted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had himself gone to the opposition leader's seat in the House whenever he visited.

He expressed hope that "sense will prevail" and the negotiation process would resume, describing dialogue as the only way to settle political disputes.

But he said PTI had so far given the government no indication, either through the informal contacts or formally, that it had changed its policy or approach. Such a discussion may be under way inside PTI meetings, he said, but nobody had approached the government to say the party was ready to change course and resolve matters through a democratic process.

The adviser said the opposition leader should meet the prime minister first, and PTI should return to the parliamentary committees it has boycotted while continuing to sit in the House. Confidence in PTI's intentions, he said, could build once the discussions inside the party turned into a "clear method" of moving forward.

The remarks were made in the Geo News interview and carried by other outlets, which added no details beyond it.