Saad Rafique: Negotiations with Imran are not viable.

LAHORE – Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique made it clear on Sunday that there was no way to deal with the struggling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in light of the events of May 9.

Speaking to the media in front of Jinnah House in Lahore, Mr. Rafique criticised Imran Khan for appointing a seven-person committee to try to negotiate with the current administration. Who will speak with them, he wondered.

According to Mr. Rafique, Mr. Khan directed his team to terminate the discussions with the government that were taking place last month under the Supreme Court’s directives.

In response to the vandalism on May 9, Mr. Rafique had asked Mr. Khan and the PTI leadership to acknowledge their error and extend an apology to the whole country.

“They [PTI] need to apologise in front of everyone. What the PTI did was not disguised as political activity, Mr. Rafique said.

Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), ruled out the idea of discussions with the PTI on Sunday.

It occurs shortly after PTI leader Imran Khan constituted a seven-person team to conduct talks with the PDM-led administration.

He said on Twitter that “Talks are exclusively conducted with politicians. There won’t be any discussions with the people that burnt down the nation and desecrated the graves of victims.

بات چیت صرف سیاست دانوں سے کی جاتی ہے۔
شہدا کی یادگاروں کو جلانے والے، ملک کو آگ لگانے والے دہشت گردوں اور تخریب کاروں کے گروہ سے کسی قسم کی کوئی بات چیت نہیں ہو گی۔

— Nawaz Sharif (@NawazSharifMNS) May 27, 2023

Senior vice president Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Parvez Khattak, Asad Qaisar, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Aon Abbas Buppi, Murad Saeed, and Hammad Azhar are all members of the PTI committee. In light of the PTI’s widespread departure, several of the figures Mr. Khan mentioned are either in prison, hiding from arrests, or have been linked to quitting the party.

Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI, had earlier urged the political players to undertake “immediate talks” since the party has been losing a large number of its members.

Every time he asked for discussion, pressure grew, according to Mr. Khan. “Do not dare think that I am weak because whenever I call for it, police come outside my home, and warrants are issued,” he said.

He continued by saying that the party was targeted for a crackdown without first looking into the assaults on the Commander House in Lahore. He enquired as to whether anybody wanted to hurt the army, adding that doing so would undermine the nation.

Speaking to media earlier, Mr. Khan said he had never encouraged party members to deface government buildings, asking how he could do it now after forbidding it after surviving an assassination attempt [in Wazirabad]. He questioned, “Why will the PTI adopt the policy of siege if it is popular with the public?”