Islamabad (HRNW)- Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not invited for talks and claimed that the party is not willing to engage in negotiations.
Talking to the media, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that he had not invited PTI for talks, adding that his meeting with Aamir Dogar was limited to discussing matters related to the upcoming session of the National Assembly.
He said that during the Independence Day ceremony, he had only asked for the names of PTI’s Members of the National Assembly for official purposes and that no discussion regarding negotiations took place. He added that he was unaware of any talks on the matter involving Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.
The Speaker said he had become tired of repeatedly extending invitations for dialogue and had now stopped asking political parties to hold talks.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq further said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also invited the opposition for dialogue several times on the floor of Parliament. He noted that the opposition members, for whom the parliamentary committee had originally been formed, had not requested its restoration.
He emphasized that the solution to every political issue lies in dialogue and consultation, adding that merely making statements through the media does not lead to meaningful negotiations.
The Speaker also remarked that PTI had perhaps selected the Leader of the Opposition to conduct negotiations, but he apparently did not receive permission to proceed with talks.
He added that if PTI chairpersons of the standing committees return the staff currently assigned to them, those personnel could be utilized elsewhere.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that if opposition leaders were unwilling to come to his chamber, he was prepared to meet them in a committee room instead. However, he maintained that the reality is that the opposition does not want to negotiate.
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