Talk to us if you don't have any hidden agenda!

Byline: Imran Mukhtar

ISLAMABAD -- Defence Minister Pervez Khattak Saturday told the opposition parties that the government is open to talks and any refusal from them to sit and negotiate for finding a solution to call off the protest march would mean they have an anti-Kashmir agenda.

Khattak, the head of government's seven-member negotiation team, also issued a warning saying that the law would take its course if the opposition stuck to holding the anti-government long march on Islamabad on October 31. 'Then all responsibility would fall on the opposition.'

Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) had announced on October 3 that they would march on Islamabad to send the government packing in protest against the alleged rigging in the 2018 general elections.

Earlier this week, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) formed the committee to negotiate with the JUI-F and other opposition parties to convince them to cancel their planned protest seeking resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and fresh elections.

'We request all opposition parties to sit on the table and talk to us if you have some [reasonable] demand or an issue. We are democratic people and can resolve the matter through discussion,' said the minister while addressing a press conference along with Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood at the Parliament House.

Khattak, who is a senior leader of the ruling party and also a former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, informed reporters that they were in contact with senior leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and JUI-F. 'We are getting a good response and I hope that they will sit and talk with us,' he claimed.

He however warned at the same time that 'if you [opposition] will not sit on the table and will not give your demands, there will be chaos'. Then all the responsibility of any bad happening would fall on the opposition parties as the government would have fulfilled its responsibility of an invite to hold talks, he added.

'Then no one should complain to us, because the government will decide [the matters] as per law and constitution, and everyone would have to face this [action],' warned an otherwise coolheaded Khattak.

The minister said that the refusal of the opposition to talks pointed to some hidden and anti-Kashmir agenda. The country is standing at a critical juncture and it looked that Kashmir issue now had been...