ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that if the federal government wants to hold consultation with PTI over Panama Papers, it should approve Panama Bill in the Senate.
“Now, we will not hold consultation with government and we will stage sit-in,” Qureshi said while talking to media in Islamabad on Saturday when asked about Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government’s intention to re-engage opposition including PTI for resumption of talks on Panama Papers.
Imran Khan-led PTI seems firm in its stance to siege the Federal Capital on November 2 in a bid to pressurize Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign or initiate an accountability against him with regards to Panama allegations.
“Peaceful protest can’t be sabotaged by negative propaganda,” Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
“We aren’t enemies of parliament, we are supporters of democracy,” he added.
On Friday, the PTI Chairman Imran Khan also ruled out talks with the government over his decision to bring Islamabad to a standstill on November 2, and said that his party would hold talks with the government only after shutting down Islamabad, and not before.
However, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader Senator Rehman Malik claimed on Friday that PML-N and PTI were engaged in secret talks and that they could cut some kind of agreement before November 2.
“I have information that they are negotiating through backdoor channels, which is quite natural. It is highly likely that the two parties will cut some agreement after give and take,” Rehman Malik told media.