Imran Khan’s party boycotts latest round of reconciliatory talks with Pakistan government

Former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party's chairman and barrister Gohar Ali Khan (C) speaks to media outside the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi on January 17, 2025. (AFP/File)

• Negotiations began last month to ease political tensions in Pakistan with three rounds held so far
• PTI says government failed to meet deadline to form judicial commissions to probe so-called violent protests

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq confirmed on Tuesday the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan had boycotted the latest round of reconciliatory talks with the government, launched in December to cool political temperatures in the South Asian nation.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party mainly demands the release of political prisoners and the setting up of two judicial commissions to probe the events that led to his arrest in August 2023, and violent protest rallies, including one on May 9, 2023, when his supporters rampaged through military offices and installations, and a second on Nov. 26, 2024, in which the government says four troops were killed. 
Negotiations started last month and three rounds have been held so far. At the last meeting on Jan. 16, the PTI had given the government seven days to announce the truth commissions, a deadline that expired last Thursday. The PTI subsequently announced it was abandoning the talks process. 
“I, again, expect opposition and government members to find out a way for negotiations,” Ayaz Sadiq, who represents the government side, told reporters. 
“When there are negotiations going on, it’s not right to put conditions first. You must sit for negotiations and then decide that you agree on something or not … but even that couldn’t happen, unfortunately.”
He said he was calling off the day’s meeting as the PTI committee did not show up. However, the government’s dialogue committee would remain intact and would not be dissolved, he added:
“I wish both sides work something out.”
A Pakistani court earlier this month sentenced Khan to 14 years in prison in a land corruption case, a setback to the nascent talks’ process.
The negotiations started last month as Khan had threatened a civil disobedience movement and amid growing concerns he could face trial by a military court for allegedly inciting attacks on sensitive security installations during the May 9 protests.
Khan’s first arrest in May 2023 in the land graft case in which he was sentenced last week sparked countrywide protests that saw his supporters attack and ransack military installations in an unprecedented backlash against Pakistan’s powerful army generals. Although Khan was released days later, he was rearrested in August of that year after being convicted in a corruption case. He remains in prison and says all cases against him are politically motivated.
Protests demanding Khan’s release in November also turned violent, with the PTI saying 12 supporters were killed while the state said four troops had died.