PM forms 3 panels to remove differences with allies
Statesman Report
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday formed three separate committees of the ruling party to hold dialogue with coalition partners remove differences and resolve pending matters.
A meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss the relations between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies. The prime minister told the meeting that the dialogue process between the ruling party and its allies should be strengthened to remove all barriers between the two sides.
To facilitate this process, the premier formed three committees under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak. A committee was formed with Privatisation Minister Asad Umar as the convener to hold dialogue with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, PTI Sindh President Firdous Shamim Naqvi and MPA Haleem Adil Sheikh are the members of the committee.
For talks with Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has been assigned as the convener while Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood would be the members.
For talks with Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Baluchistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), the committee would be led by Pervaiz Khattak himself with National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri and Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali as members of the committee.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government’s allies had announced they would review their alliance with the ruling PTI and had complained that the commitments made with them were not fulfilled.
Initially, it appeared as if the panic button had been pressed as one by one, almost all allied parties started pushing for the acceptance of their demands. However, later things started to cool down after the government started reaching out to them.
Interestingly, when the premier visited Karachi three days ago, he did not meet members of MQM-P although he had visited Kingari House in Karachi and met with GDA chief Pir Pagaro and assured him that all the issues highlighted in their meeting would be resolved.