The government and the PTI negotiation committees have agreed to continue the dialogue process. According to the press release, the first meeting of both the dialogues committees was held at the Parliament House in Islamabad today with Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair. The government committee comprised Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, Rana Sanaullah, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Syed Naveed Qamar, Abdul Aleem Khan and Dr Farooq Sattar. The PTI and its allied parties' committee was represented by Asad Qaiser, Raja Nasir Abbas and Sahibzada Hamid Raza.

PTI leader Asad Qaiser apprised the meeting that other members of their committee could not attend this emergency session as some of them are either facing cases or out of the country. Both the committees expressed good wishes for each other and declared today's meeting as a positive move. Describing the Parliament as an important forum to resolve issues, they said the process of dialogue should continue. In the today's session, the opposition committee presented an initial layout of its demands and it was decided that the opposition will table its charter of demands in writing in the next meeting to be held on 2nd of the next month.

The meeting also offered fateha for the departed souls of martyred, who sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorism. It also expressed the resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with the nation for the complete elimination of terrorism from the country. The committee members thanked the Speaker for his efforts to get started the dialogue process between the government and the opposition.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)