ISLAMABAD    -    The leadership of op­position Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday reiterat­ed its resolve that they were willing to sit down with the federal gov­ernment for parleys in order to develop politi­cal consensus to get the country out of the pre­vailing quagmire.

However, they cast aspersions on the rul­ing parties’ intentions in this regard, accus­ing they were hell bent on disobeying the Con­stitution to avoid the polls, which was unac­ceptable.

In a statement, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and PTI Senior Vice Presi­dent Fawad Chaudhry stated that Prime Min­sotwr Shehbaz Sharif’s statement cleared the little doubt if any that the government was in no mood either to hold talks with the opposition or conduct elections in the two provinces in the constitutional­ly mandated timeframe.

Qureshi said that in the best interest of the country and peo­ple, they were willing to sit down for talks to develop polit­ical consensus within ambit of the Constitution. However, he stated that clearly this govern­ment was not sincere, as it nei­ther wanted to hold polls nor dialogue with the opposition to find out solution to get the country out of the imbroglio.

Former foreign minister Qureshi reiterated: “PTI will continue to follow the Constitu­tion and Supreme Court’s judge­ment regarding holding of the general elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). He claimed that the Pakistan Demo­cratic Movement (PDM)-led gov­ernment neither wanted to hold polls on May 14 nor on October 8, as there was no consensus with­in the widely fractured coalition of ruling parties. He stated that the government was even in no mood to hold talks with the PTI, as they were hell-bent on violat­ing the Constitution. He went on to say that PML-N leaders Ayaz Sadiq and Khawaja Saad Rafique were nominated by the govern­ment to hold talks with the PTI but now both were saying that they were not part of the team tasked to hold talks. He added that they wanted to use the par­liament as a bulwark and shield.

Reacting to PM Shehbaz’s state­ment that polls of all provin­cial assemblies and the Nation­al Assembly should be held in the country on same day and in Octo­ber, Fawad said that the constitu­tion mandated that polls were to be held within 90 days of the dis­solution of the assemblies. He ad­vised that the cabinet should send its decision to the parliament and change the Constitution with a two-thirds majority or else polls should be held in Punjab and KP as per the order of the apex court. He reminded that the constitu­tion cannot be suspended only by statements and resolutions, add­ing that the attitude of disobeying the constitution by the ruling par­ties was unacceptable.