Pakistan to talk with Imran Khan, Tahir ul Qadri
Pakistan government ready to discuss all constitutional demands of both Imran khan and Tahir ul Qadiri
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-19 02:54 GMT
Islamabad: The Pakistan government has said it was ready to discuss all “constitutional” demands put forth by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek and announced formation of two committees, consisting of members from all major political parties, to hold talks with them.
The decision to hold talks with the protest leaders Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Awami Tehreek chief Tahir-ul Qadiri came hours after Khan launched a civil disobedience movement to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“The federal government is willing to listen to each and every constitutional demand of PTI and PAT as a goodwill gesture, we have decided to constitute two separate committees to negotiate with them,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said at a news conference on Sunday night. “The two teams will consist of members from all major parties and will hold talks with the protesting leaders tomorrow,” he added.
The minister said no one would be allowed to violate the security of the “Red Zone” where the Parliament, the President and the Prime Minister’s residences and embassies are located. Nisar said the government exercised restraint and facilitated the long marchers.
“We allowed them to stage their sit-in where they wanted to and provided them security. Rs 1 billion have been spent on their security.” Earlier, Khan declared a “civil disobedience movement” against the Nawaz Sharif-led government and Qadri gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the Prime Minister to resign. “There is only one way now, we will kick off a civil disobedience campaign,” Khan said to raucous applause from thousands of his supporters.
Mr Khan announced his party will quit the national and provincial assemblies and warned that his workers will cross into the high-security Red Zone on Tuesday if Mr Sharif did not resign.
“You have heard that we will quit the Assemblies as we do not accept these Assemblies elected on fake votes and we do not accept the Prime Minister. Now I am telling you, we will cross into the Red Zone tomorrow (Tuesday),” Mr Khan said while addressing the PTI sit-in here. “Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8 pm government’s deadline will be over and then we will head towards Red Zone. And since it will be peaceful, I ask the women to accompany me as well. I will lead the march and will receive bullets from police if they decide to kill us,” he added. The PTI chief said, “I saw blood in the eyes of my supporters yesterday (Sunday).”