Agreement on Same-day Election, No Consensus on Date: 3rd Round of Pak Govt-PTI Talks Inconclusive

The third and crucial round of negotiation between the Shehbaz Sharif ruling coalition and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf ended on Tuesday night without a major breakthrough on the date of the election.

Though the two sides reached a consensus on the same-day election across the country under a caretaker government, the meeting failed to determine the pol date and the dissolution of assemblies.

The third round of the talks began at 9 pm at the Committee Room of the Parliament House. While the PTI demands polls in July or August, the government side suggested that polls be held in October.

The government team comprised former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar, Minister for National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema, Sanaullah Baloch from the BNP (Mengal) and Kishwar Zahra from the MQM.

The Imran Khan’s party delegation was led by Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Senator Ali Zafar and Fawad Chaudhry.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that both the sides agreed that elections would be held on the same day under a caretaker government but they could not decide on the date.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi also said though there was an agreement on the same-day election, the two sides failed to decide on a date.

Qureshi further said that PTI would approach the Supreme Court and submit a written report of negotiations to implement the court’s decision to hold elections in Punjab on May 14.

Earlier, Imran Khan said that the government should dissolve all assemblies by May 14 to pave the way for holding elections in the entire country on the same date. However, the government is not ready to dissolve assemblies.

The first round of talks was held on April 27 which went on for two hours and the rivals decided to meet again after consulting their party heads. It was followed by the second round on April 28 where each side tabled two proposals, which was to be presented to the respective leadership.

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