A government delegation held talks with Tahirul Qadri, chief of the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ), to avert a political crisis and disperse a rally that has heaped pressure on the government, on Thursday evening.

The delegation comprises of Afrasiab Khattak, Farooq Naek, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Chaudhry Shujaat, Babar Ghauri, Khurshid Shah, Amin Faheem, Farooq Sattar and Mushahid Hussain.
Earlier, Qadri had given the government a ‘last deadline’ of until 3 pm to meet his demands which he had later extended to 3:45 pm. At the time, he had also stated that talks could only be held with President Asif Ali Zardari. However, the government had constituted a committee to hold talks with the TMQ chief.
He had added that he was giving a last chance to the government to address his demands.
Sources had earlier told that the president had been informed of Qadri’s demand for holding talks with him.
Sources had at the time added that the federal government had constituted a committee of four to hold talks with the TMQ chief.
The TMQ chief is leading tens of thousands of protesters outside parliament to demand that the government resign. It is the largest political rally in the capital for years.
The rally has threatened to destabilise the country as it inches towards what would be the first democratic transition of power between two civilian governments in the upcoming elections.