Pakistan: Azadi march: PTI suspends talks with govt

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has suspended the dialogue process with the government.

PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Punjab Governor was informed about the suspension of talks with the government negotiating team. Qureshi held a telephonic conversation with Chaudhry Sarwar and told him that the PTI team will not come to the hotel for the negotiation.

The official page of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf also tweeted about the decision.

Explaining the reason, the PTI said the statements of federal ministers were deteriorating the environment for talks.

The PTI committee is currently present at the residence of Jahangir Tareen.

The second round of talks between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the government were scheduled for 2pm today.

Earlier, member of the negotiation committee, Ahsan Iqbal said that both the parties have a consensus over not being a laughing stock. PTI has presented 6 demands before the government which shall be reviewed within the party and we’re hopeful for the dialogues to bear positive outcome, he added.

Vice Chairman PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that PTI is a democratic party and they are not negotiating upon anybody else’s indication. The PTI and the government have both formulated their respective teams for negotiations. The team representing the government constituted governor Punjab Chaudhry Sarwar and federal ministers viz Pervez Rashid, Zahid Hamid, Ahsan Iqbal and Abdul Qadir Baloch whereas the negotiating team representing PTI constituted Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Javed Hashmi, Asad Umer, Jahangir Tareen and Arif Alvi.

The negotiations took place in a hotel in Islamabad after which Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that they had presented their demands before the government and would be awaiting for their response after consultation.