Imran Khan should hold unconditional talks with coalition leadership: Yousuf Raza Gillani
LODHRAN, Dec 04, (SABAH): Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Vice Chairman and former prime minister Senator Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani on Sunday said how can a chief minister, who cannot register a first information report (FIR), dissolve the assembly.
The PPP leader’s remarks came during a conversation with journalists in Lodhran as he took a jibe at Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi on authorising Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan with power to dissolve the provincial assembly.
A day earlier, Imran Khan said that CM Elahi has given him “full authority to dissolve the assembly” whenever he wills in an interview with a private news channel.
He also shared his willingness to halt the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies if the coalition government agrees to conduct elections by the end of March next year.
“Imran Khan will not take the risk of dissolving assemblies. He knows that if he does so, elections will only take place in two provinces,” Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani said asserting that Imran Khan should hold unconditional talks with coalition leadership.
“When Imran Khan did not agree to our demand of conducting elections, how can we agree to his demands?” the former prime minister said, adding that the PTI chief’s “false narrative” has been exposed.
He criticised the Khan-led party for conducting a media trial against the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Gillani maintained that since the tables have now turned, the PTI is demanding elections out of fear of being “exposed”.
“We have faced imprisonment in minor cases. They are afraid and demand elections as their cases are bigger,” he said.
Commenting on Khan’s claims of PTI winning the next elections, the PPP leader deemed it his “misconception”.
“It is Khan’s misconception that he will get two-thirds majority if elections are held. Our coalition parties are influential in their respective areas and a coalition government will be formed in the future as well,” the former premier said.
He added that the PTI was demanding fresh elections as it wanted to clean itself of the corruption charges against its bigwigs.