Opposition leader urges PM to form team for PTI talks

According to Business Recorder, Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas on Monday called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to form a committee for talks with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, saying political leaders must sit together to reduce rising tension before the PTI's planned long march on 27 September.

Speaking to journalists at Parliament House, Abbas said even major conflicts are resolved through dialogue. "Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should form a team for dialogue, when political figures sit together, they find a solution," he was quoted as saying. He also asked Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Pakistan People's Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-e-Islami and other parties to help calm the situation.

The senator said the dialogue should include the prime minister, the PPP and PML-N leadership, as well as Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the JI. "These people should come together today, tomorrow, or the day after, but they must sit together. If Pakistan is truly dear to them, they should show seriousness," he said.

Abbas said his recent meeting with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi about a possible government-PTI dialogue had not produced an immediate result, but the process needed more time. "The previous dialogue did not yield any immediate conclusive result. The dialogue process should be given more time. Only if no result emerges from the dialogue, can it be said that we have failed," he said. He called for empowered individuals from both sides to step forward.

When reporters asked about the "voluntary" arrests of PTI lawmakers before the march, Abbas countered: "Why don't you ask that the lawmakers are being illegally arrested? Why don't you raise this question; that it is absolutely against the constitution and the law to arrest the people peacefully sitting in the Parliament Lodges? Those who arrested the peaceful legislators, who are they to do so? Who gave them this right?"

The PTI announced last month that it would begin a long march in support of former prime minister Imran Khan, who is in prison. On 5 August, the party held public rallies across the country to mark three years of his imprisonment. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced the march at a gathering in Peshawar that day, saying the cases against Khan were frivolous.