ISLAMABAD - Despite showing satisfaction over the progress in the negotiations with government, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership was in a state of indecision on rejoining the Parliament and playing its due role in the Parliamentary activities.
PTI negotiation team head Shah Mahmood Qureshi after meeting the government team on Friday last said that they had made significant progress towards narrowing down differences and hoped that by next week they would land on the same page regarding the scrutiny of alleged rigging in 2013 General Elections through a judicial commission comprising Supreme Court of Pakistan judges.
Similarly, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, leading the government team, was optimistic about the constitution of Judicial Commission in a week’s time adding that they had made significant progress in thrashing out the differences.
But despite all these positive signals, the PTI leadership was reluctant to take back their members’ resignations and participate in the Parliamentary activities, perhaps due to the appalling trust-deficit between the two sides.
The insiders in PTI were of the view that they wanted to keep pressure on the government to get its demand of constitution of Judicial Commission and audit of 2013 General Elections on its terms met.
On the other hand, the legal and constitutional experts commenting on the given situation, said that by joining a Parliamentary Committee on devising a national action plan on counter-terrorism, PTI has virtually made the resignations of its MPs irrelevant and are now part and parcel of the Parliament.
But the insiders in PTI are of the view that the committee formed on devising national action plan on counter-terrorism is not Parliamentary Committee, so they have not done anything against their declared stand on staying out of the Parliament.
Sources in the ruling PML-N informed The Nation that during the meeting with PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar at the residence of Jahangir Khan Tareen, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar requested the PTI leaders to come back in Parliament and play its due role in Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms and NA Standing Committees. But Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that they would decide on it after consultation with the party leadership in its Core Committee meeting.
When one of the PTI members in the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms Shafqat Mahmood was asked whether they would be attending the upcoming meeting of the committee, he said that the party has yet to take decision on it.
Shafqat Mahmood, Dr. Shareen Mazari and Dr. Arif Alvi are the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, but PTI members have hardly attended a couple of inaugural meetings of the committee and then on the direction of the party leadership went on boycott and then finally tendered resignations as member Parliament.
The sources aware of the developments informed The Nation that though both sides are claiming breakthrough in the negotiations but still they have to work hard to narrow down differences between them on host of issues, mainly on the definition of rigging and its mode of application.
It was due to these sharp differences between the two sides which had compelled the PTI to link the decision of their rejoining the Parliament with the constitution of the Judicial Commission and initiation of work on examination of the rigging charges in 2013 General Elections they had levelled.