Pakistan: PTI denies govt’s claims of contacts over Aug 14 march

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday strongly denied claims of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) that the government is in touch with certain PTI leaders to call off the 'million march' on Islamabad scheduled for August 14.

"Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif wanted to have a word with Imran Khan but the PTI chief refused to talk to him and there is also no other contact between government and the party leaders,” he told Dawn.com over telephone from his native home town, Multan.

Qureshi said time for talks with the government has gone past and the decision of going ahead with the long march is final.

"Some of government ministers are spreading rumours to confuse our workers,” he claimed.

"The government, by calling Pakistan Army in Islamabad, wants to scare PTI workers but we are determined to carry on with the Aug 14 march,” he said, adding that, “our workers won't clash with military or any other security force.” When his attention was drawn to the fact that an electoral reforms committee has been constituted, Qureshi said the PTI would extend full cooperation to the committee. However, he added that the government was not serious in reforming the country’s electoral process

Earlier, Political Secretary to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Dr Asif Kirmani had told Dawn that the government has established contact with the PTI leadership in a bid to convince them to call off the long march.

“Some of our party leaders are in touch with PTI leaders for holding a dialogue in order to call off their long march," said Kirmani.

He said the government's door was open for talks with PTI and that party chief Imran Khan was requested to discuss issues on a dialogue table instead of launching the long march. Sources said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has been tasked to woo Imran to call off his party's million-man long march. They added that as a result of background contacts, both Nisar and Imran are expected to meet on Aug 4 to discuss the issues and demands of the PTI.