PTI may return to Senate committees after meeting with Imran Khan

Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could return

Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could return to parliamentary standing committees if a meeting is arranged with the party’s founder, Imran Khan.

Speaking to journalists in Islamabad, Raja Nasir Abbas said that if the government wanted Parliament to continue functioning, it should facilitate a meeting between PTI leaders and Imran Khan.

He alleged that deliberate ambiguity was being created about Imran Khan’s health, saying the situation was also aimed at creating divisions within the party.

Raja Nasir Abbas recalled that before the passage of the 26th Constitutional Amendment, a meeting with Imran Khan had taken place on the orders of the court.

He said his party wanted a government that genuinely represented the people. Commenting on Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks about a possible collapse of the system, he said he agreed with the assessment. He added that the problem identified by Naqvi was real, but the proposed “medicine” to address it was illegal.

The Senate opposition leader also claimed that he knew why negotiations between the government and PTI had failed. He said a complete plan for negotiations had been taken to Imran Khan at Adiala Jail, adding that the opposition had held a meeting at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House before approaching the PTI founder.

“We took several proposals to the founder,” he said, explaining that they did not want to visit the Prime Minister’s House and provide legal legitimacy to the government’s position.

He said the same principle was behind their decision not to hold negotiations in the Speaker’s Office, as they did not recognise the arrangements as legally legitimate.

Raja Nasir Abbas stressed that he distinguished between Imran Khan and the PTI as a political party, adding that he would stand by the former prime minister “until the last moment.”

He reiterated that PTI could return to the standing committees if a meeting with Imran Khan was arranged.

“If the government is serious about negotiations, it should come forward and talk,” he said, adding that the opposition was ready to hold talks in the Constitution Room of Parliament House.