PTI says talks with govt broke down over two issues

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said on Monday that government-opposition talks broke down over two issues: the government’s refusal to lift the ban on meetings with Imran Khan and the Centre’s decision to tackle terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without taking the provincial government on board.

Speaking at a press conference alongside senior party leaders, Raja said the PTI negotiating team had reached agreement with the government on several issues, but insisted that progress on those matters was meaningless without resolving the two “core” disputes.

“If there could be no agreement on these two issues, any agreement or consensus on any other issue would not make any sense,” he added.

The first sticking point was the PTI’s demand for unrestricted meetings with Khan, who is incarcerated in Rawalpindi.

Raja said the party had made it clear that access to Khan was essential for any political dialogue to move forward.

The issue remained unresolved even after the government agreed to allow Khan’s sister and lawyer to meet him in jail on Tuesday (today), he said.

According to Raja, the PTI withdrew its acceptance of the concession after the government refused to lift the broader restrictions on meetings with Khan.

The party also pressed for greater access to Khan on medical grounds. Raja said the PTI had asked that his sister, Dr Uzma Khan, and personal physician Dr Faisal Sultan be included in the government medical board that would examine him at a private hospital, in accordance with Supreme Court orders.

He said the government team had initially agreed but later backed away from the proposal.

The PTI also sought permission for Dr Asim Yousaf, who had examined Khan on five previous occasions, to assess him again, either independently or alongside government-appointed doctors.

Raja argued that the involvement of Khan’s personal physicians would strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of any medical assessment.

The second and more substantive dispute, he added, concerned the Centre’s proposed strategy for dealing with militancy in KP without taking the provincial government on board and imposition of emergency in five ex-Fata districts.

Raja said the PTI team had referred to an all-parties conference held in Peshawar several months ago, where a broader approach to the security situation had been proposed.

The plan called for tribal leaders and other stakeholders with knowledge of the region to be consulted before a strategy was finalised.

The government, he said, instead proposed declaring an emergency in five of KP’s merged districts within 72 hours, followed by security action.

“We told the government panel: how could this be done in 72 hours,” he said.

The PTI proposed using the same 72-hour period to complete consultations and reach consensus on the course of action.

But the government rejected the proposal and was unwilling to include the word “unanimous” in the draft agreement on tackling terrorism in the province, he claimed.

The disagreement persisted as negotiations resulted into the early hours of Monday, with the talks eventually breaking down at around 2:40am.

Raja said the PTI had also sought consultation with the KP government, tribal elders and other stakeholders before any major counterterrorism action was undertaken.

The dispute, he argued, reflected a fundamental difference over whether security policy in the province should be decided unilaterally by the centre or jointly with the provincial government.

Referring to Khan’s earlier statements on militancy in the former tribal areas, Raja said the PTI founder had partly attributed the rise in violence to drone attacks in the former Fata.

The PTI secretary general said his party would not accept negotiations that excluded Khan.

He also maintained that his legal team should be allowed to meet him to discuss around 300 pending cases, which he described as politically motivated.

“Without including Imran Khan in any kind of talks, no talks can take place ever,” he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026