Party of Pakistan’s Imran Khan says ready for negotiations with ‘angels or humans’

Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leader Omar Ayub Khan (L) speaks during a press conference at PTI’s central secretariat in Islamabad on February 18, 2024. (AFP/File)

• In Pakistan, “angels” is a widely used euphemism to refer to all-powerful army and its intelligence agencies
• Khan has said will hold “conditional talks” with army but refuses to sit down with “puppet” government

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday the party was ready for political negotiations, whether it was with “humans or angels,” in a veiled reference to criticism that the outfit had rejected talks with the civilian government and only wanted to engage with representatives of the all-powerful military. 
Khan, in jail since August last year on charges he says are trumped up to keep him out of power, has repeatedly offered to hold "conditional negotiations" with the military. He has described the army as the “actual decision-makers” in the country and refused to talk to what he calls the "puppet" coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Critics have slammed Khan and his PTI party for their inflexibility on the issue, saying they are blocking attempts at reconciliation in a country that has been mired in political uncertainty since 2022, when Khan was ousted from power in a parliamentary no-trust vote. 
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Omar Ayub Khan, a close Khan aide and the leader of the opposition in the national assembly, said the PTI founder has given the go-ahead to form a negotiations committee comprising Omar and other senior PTI leaders like Hamid Raza, Salman Akram Rana, Ali Amin Gandapur and Asad Qaiser.
“We can have negotiations with anyone to bring stability to the country and bring down the political temperature,” Omar said, saying the main conditions for talks were the release of Khan and thousands of other PTI leaders and supporters who were in jail on “fake” charges. 
He also called for judicial commissions to investigate protests on May 9 last year and Nov. 24 this year in which the government says PTI supporters partook in violence and caused vandalism.
“If that doesn't happen, then we are free to start a civil disobedience movement,” Omar said.
When asked if the PTI was open to talks with the government, the leader of the opposition replied: 
“We are ready for negotiations, whether it is with humans or angels or whatever they are, we are ready for negotiations.”
In Pakistan, “angels” is a widely used euphemism to refer to the army and its intelligence agencies. 
Pressure on the PTI, at loggerheads with the government and military for months, has increased since last month, when thousands of the party’s supporters stormed Islamabad, demanding Khan’s release from prison. The government says protesters killed four security officers in clashes while the PTI says at least 12 of its supporters died and "hundreds" were injured as security agencies used live ammunition rounds to disperse protesters, which authorities deny.
Party leaders have described the raid on the protest site as a “massacre,” with social media platforms awash with pictures and video footage that the government has called “fake propaganda” by PTI followers. The government also says there were no civilian casualties. The army was deployed by the government during the raid to disperse protesters, but authorities say only police and paramilitary troops participated while the military acted as a "third line of defense."
In the aftermath of the protests, the Sharif coalition government formed two task forces: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government describes as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.
In a strongly worded statement released last week, the Pakistan army called on the government to take action against the rioters as well as those who had launched “fake” online campaigns against the state and its security agencies. 
Khan, who remains a popular figure in Pakistan despite being in prison and facing several court cases, has led a campaign of unprecedented defiance against the Sharif coalition and the all-powerful military, which he accuses of being behind his ouster from office in 2022. The army denies it interferes in politics.