Islamabad: The party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has rejected the possibility of dialogue with the government of PM Shehbaz Sharif. PTI’s Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, was quoted by Geo News as saying, “The chapter of talks is now closed."
He added that the government had failed to fulfill basic commitments necessary for the resumption of negotiations. “The other side neither displayed goodwill nor intent, leading to a deadlock," he added.
The talks were launched in December last year following months of political tensions. Amid a deadlock in talks, the PTI held massive ‘Black Day’ protests across Pakistan on February 8 citing alleged rigging of the general elections last year. A major rally was held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s capital, Swabi.
Over the issue of stalled talks, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Irfan Siddiqui said the government’s negotiation committee had become “non-functional” due to PTI’s ‘unilateral withdrawal'. Siddiqui said the PTI rejected Shehbaz Sharif’s offer to reconsider their stance and instead returned to its “home ground of violent protests".
Meanwhile, PTI said that it refused to attend the fourth round of talks as the government had failed to form a judicial commission to probe the May 9 riots and November 2024 protests.
Zuckerberg claims he was 'almost sentenced to death' in PakNew York: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that he was "almost sentenced to death in Pakistan" after being sued for blasphemous content on his social media platform. He made the claim during a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. "There are laws in different countries that we disagree with. For example, there was a time when someone was trying to get me sentenced to death in Pakistan because someone on Facebook had a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad, and someone said 'that's blasphemy in our culture'. They sued me and opened criminal proceedings... But I am not planning to go to Pakistan, so I'm not worried about it," he said. The Facebook CEO did acknowledge that the situation was a "little disconcerting", adding that "it's not great (if you're) flying over that region, you don't want your plane to go down above Pakistan". |
