Islamabad:
Pakistan's jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he is willing to hold talks but not make a “deal” with someone who stole his party's mandate in the February 8 general election.
Speaking to journalists at the high-security Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi, the 71-year-old Pakistani Tehreek e Insaf founder on Friday claimed that negotiations were held only with opponents and therefore the talks should be held with those who were PTI's biggest opponents . currently apparently a reference to the military establishment, the Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.
Underlining that he had said for 18 months that he was willing to hold negotiations but not make a deal, Khan reiterated that his party would hold talks with all but the three parties, Geo News reported.
“Someone who wants to leave the country or avoid jail time makes a deal,” he said, in an apparent reference to PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif.
Khan appointed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prime Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Shibli Faraz for conducting negotiations.
“I proposed these three names for discussions and not for a deal,” he said.
The February 8 general elections produced a fractured mandate. Independent candidates, the majority backed by Khan's PTI, won 93 seats in the 336-member National Assembly. Former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 75 seats, while Bilawal Zardari Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) won 17 seats.
Khan's PTI party has insisted that the powerful establishment had favored Sharif's PML-N and that Pakistan's Election Commission deliberately used a different form to announce the results to “steal the mandate” that belonged to it.
The PML-N struck a deal with Bhutto's PPP and four smaller parties after the elections and formed the government in March.
Khan reiterated that he was “always ready for talks, but this could only happen if their stolen mandate was returned and innocent jailed workers were released,” Dawn newspaper quoted PTI's media wing as saying on Friday.
Without naming anyone, Khan told reporters that “they” were going to file the fourth case against him regarding the Toshakhana gifts. They would have to file all the cases they wanted at once, he added.
Khan's statement came a day after PTI chairman lawyer Gohar Ali Khan claimed that his party was not holding dialogue with anyone nor had any special message for talks.
Speaking to journalists outside Rawalpindi's Adiala prison, Gohar said the former prime minister faced “politically motivated” cases. He added that the PTI founder has requested the judiciary to rule on his cases at the earliest, Geo News reported.
“Ali Amin Gandapur, Omar Ayub Khan and Shibli Faraz have been allowed to hold talks but not to make a deal,” Gohar said, adding that they were allowed to talk to anyone except three political parties.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)