ISLAMABAD: The government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have ‘mutually agreed’ to change the timing of negotiations to break the ongoing political and constitutional impasse and agree on one date for holding elections in the country.
The third round of negotiations were originally planned for 11am on May 2nd but, according to Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, they have been moved to 9pm on the same day as per a mutual agreement.
The talks between the government and PTI will be held at the Senate Secretariat, Sanjrani confirmed on Monday.
The decision to change the negotiation time was made due to the busy schedules of the members of the government and the PTI negotiation committees, he explained.
Efforts to find common ground through dialogue between the leaders of the ruling alliance and the PTI have continued as the talks remained on track. However, the talks have not yet yielded results so far. Leaders from both sides have refused to let their differences come in the way of forging a consensus on general elections.
On the second day of talks, the government and the PTI teams once again entered a room in the Parliament House, shut the door, only to emerge after a couple of hours, agreeing that the third – possibly final – round would take place on Tuesday after which a decision would be announced.
Though the leaders sounded hopeful about future prospects, the second round of talks ended with both sides agreeing to take input from their leadership and continue negotiations.
On Saturday, PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry announced that the former ruling party has decided to continue negotiations with the government regarding the framework for elections within the bounds of the Constitution.
Taking to Twitter, Fawad stated that the PTI is committed to upholding the orders of the Supreme Court and rejecting any attempts to “sabotage the talks”.
He further said that the final agenda for the negotiations will be discussed on Tuesday.
