KP CM sabotaged talks at final stage, says Talal

ISLAMABAD  –  As the government and opposition trade fresh accusations over the reasons behind the breakdown of talks, the Centre said on Tuesday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had missed an opportunity to sign a deal, which could have marked the beginning of a “Charter of Democracy II”, aimed at ending ongoing political crisis and addressing terrorism.

Addressing a press conference here, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said the government and the opposition alliance in the second round of talks had even reached an agreement on political issues concerning health and meetings of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan.

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“It was the beginning of Charter of Democracy II,” he said, adding that a breakthrough had happened, accusing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of sabotaging dialogue at the final stage.

The Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed in 2006 by two major political parties—the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)—sought to strengthen parliamentary democracy and civilian institutions in the country.

The talks between the PML-N led ruling alliance and the opposition ended without final agreement over the weekend, with both sides offering different explanations and the PTI continuing its long march on Islamabad.

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Minister of State Chaudhry said constitutional options were under discussion to address the situation in KP, but political options and talks were their priority.

Setting two preconditions for resumption of talks with the opposition, he said dialogue would start only if the PTI called off its long march and the KP government agreed to fully implement the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism.

He said the ruling coalition entered negotiations with good intent and was ready to give maximum political space to the PTI, and that consensus had been reached on terrorism-related matters in the first round of talks.

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The minister of state said after the first round of talks, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi travelled to Lahore and briefed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that the PTI led government in KP and the Centre had agreed to address all issues related to terrorism.

The prime minister, he said, told the negotiation team to “give as much political space as can be given” if the opposition agreed to fully cooperate on security. “Let the opposition get political mileage,” he quoted the PM as saying this in his meeting with Naqvi. National security and eliminating terrorism were more important than any political advantage, the premier said.

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“Our victory was that we had succeeded in convincing the PTI to agree to a unanimous narrative to end terrorism,” Chaudhry said.

He went on to say that the government had asked the opposition team to include either a representative of KP government or Chief Minister Afridi himself in the talks process. The opposition delegation maintained it had authority to negotiate on behalf of both the party and the provincial government, he said.

After the first round, he said, some opposition representatives travelled to Peshawar and met the chief minister and other leaders of PTI and gave assurances to the federal government that there was complete agreement on counterterrorism points, he added.

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The second round began after those assurances, with the government believing points regarding security had been settled. Talks then moved to political issues, including Khan’s health, meetings with him and cases involving party members, and a draft agreement was prepared, he said.

However, he added that talks broke down at the final stage after opposition representatives held a separate discussion and contacted the KP chief minister again.

The minister of state questioned PTI’s objections to federal counterterrorism measures, saying terrorism had affected everyone across KP. He played a video showing statements of PTI leadership including Asad Qaiser and provincial chief executive Afridi opposing military operations in merged districts of KP.

He also questioned the provincial government’s position on the use of drones by security forces, saying modern operations required such technology to monitor and respond to attacks. He underlined militant groups had been carrying out drone attacks from across the Afghan border and preventing forces from using effective equipment could leave them vulnerable.

He maintained the fight against terrorism should not be treated as a political or provincial issue and cooperation between federal and KP governments was necessary to implement the NAP. He recalled that PTI chief Khan during his premiership had worked on developing consensus on NAP-II.

Chaudhry questioned how Afridi was leading a long march without any fear of terrorism in those areas of KP where other political parties could not even hold an ordinary rally and common people were unable to attend social gatherings due to the worst security situation. He accused terrorist groups of having a soft corner for the ruling party in KP. He claimed that after 2015, the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and any terrorist group never attacked a single provincial or national leader of PTI in KP as well as throughout the country. He added that leadership of all other parties faced several attacks during this period.

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