We don’t control army so how can we talk to Taliban? asks Imran

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Friday asked the prime minister to call another All Parties Conference (APC) and apprise the forum about the status of talks with the Taliban and hurdles in this context.

“We have no control over the army, then how can we hold talks with the Taliban?” Imran said at a media briefing here at his residence.It appeared, he pointed out, that the dialogue with the Taliban was a fixed match and instead of pursuing the talks, the PTI was being criticised and targeted.

Imran alleged that a ploy was under way to retain Pakistan as an ally in the so-called war on terrorism.He contended that if the government was unable to resolve the issue of terrorism, then conceding its failure, the prime minister should hand over the government to his party, which would tackle the issue.

To a question, he said an impression was being created that talks with the Taliban had failed. “How can these talks fail when it had not started yet?” he added.The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief cautioned the rulers not to impede the thumb verification of voters in four constituencies or his party would not let the government function through massive street protests.

Imran said they would taketo the streets again, as they did for the restoration of then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and this time they would come on roads for transparency in elections.

He urged the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of ‘massive rigging’ in the elections, as under a well-conceived conspiracy the public mandate was stolen. “We will not let the government play with democracy and the future of nation,” he said.

Imran pointed out that ex-chairman Nadra Tariq Malik was harassed and his family members were also given threats, forcing him to tender his resignation. He noted that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgment on this issue had also proved that threats were given to Tariq Malik and his family. He said this was done after Tariq Malik refused to carry out the voter verification as per the ruling party’s desire.

The PTI chief said all these events exposed the mala fide intention of the government, as it was opposed to probes into massive electoral irregularities and rigging in the May 2013 general elections.