Barrister Gohar says PTI not talking with govt at the moment

PESHAWAR: PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Wednesday said that his party was not holding talks with the government at the moment and that matters had not progressed beyond the offer of negotiations. Talking to reporters on the premises of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), Gohar said, “It is now the responsibility of those who hold authority to respond to PTI’s offer.” He added that the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, had shown magnanimity by shaking hands with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and offering talks with the government. “If anyone takes this offer as our weakness, they are mistaken,” he said. The PTI chairman said that the party would decide on the upcoming elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) within the next two days, adding that it had not made any decision to boycott the polls. He added that a notification circulating on social media regarding the PTI’s boycott of the elections was “fake”. Regarding differences within the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said that the PTI had no intention of replacing Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, adding that he was “not going anywhere”. “No one in the assembly can replace Sohail Afridi,” Gohar added. The PTI chairman added that the party leadership had called the disgruntled MPAs for a meeting in the coming days and was closely monitoring the situation in the province. “Give reconciliation a chance,” he said, adding that if the people of AJK were protesting over their grievances, that protest should remain peaceful. Referring to a recent decision by AJK Supreme Court, the PTI chairman lamented that the party’s election symbol was taken away without any justification. “Losing our election symbol in Haripur, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir created many problems for us,” he added. Gohar stressed the need to hold negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues amicably. “Political issues should have political solutions”, he said. “Finding solutions to problems is