Pakistan ruling party says ready to engage with 'sane opposition voices' ahead of antigovernment rallies

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's ruling party says it is willing to initiate negotiations with "sane voices" in the opposition ahead of a scheduled nationwide protest to dislodge the government, a senior official said on Saturday.
The opposition has recently formed the Pakistan Democratic Movement, vowing to hold countrywide rallies and resign en masse from the national and provincial legislatures to force the government to hold early general elections.
“We are ready to engage with sane voices in the opposition for public and national interest, but surely not with their corrupt and inept leadership,” Senator Faisal Javed Khan, a close aide to Prime Minister Imran Khan, told Arab News.
“They want us to give them relief in corruption cases against them, and let me say it categorically this can’t happen on Prime Minister Khan’s watch,” he said.
Prime Minister Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party came into power in August 2018 after defeating all major opposition parties in the general elections. The opposition parties, however, claim the elections were rigged, a charge that the government denies vehemently.
“We are one of the biggest democratic political parties in the country, and we believe all conspiracies being hatched against us by the opposition would die down soon,” the senator said, adding that the opposition would be dealt with an "iron hand" if they tried to create chaos through street agitation.
“We can’t let them derail the economic progress made in the last two years,” he said. “We will ensure political and economic stability in the country at any cost.”
The opposition alliance is going to hold the first of its public rallies in Gujranwala, Punjab province, on Oct. 16. The rallies are planned to conclude on Dec. 27 in Larkana, Sindh province — the hometown of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. After the nationwide rallies, members of the alliance say they will march towards Islamabad in January.
In response to Senator Khan's expression of willingness to engage in talks, Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), told Arab News that "there is absolutely no chance of any negotiations with the government."
"We are proceeding ahead as per our plan to mobilize the public, and will be using all other democratic and constitutional rights as well to dislodge the government," he said, adding that the opposition alliance can bring a no-confidence motion against the prime minister or tender en masse resignations from the assemblies to collapse the system.
"This government doesn't have a capacity and attitude to engage with the opposition to resolve the issues of public interest through dialogue," Haq said.
According to political analysts, however, there is little for the opposition to negotiate with the government if it demands new elections and dissolution of assemblies.
“Now the ball is in the opposition’s court. Will they be able to sustain their movement and bring enough people on streets to force the government to quit? It seems highly unlikely at this stage,” political analyst Zahid Hussain told Arab News.
He said the opposition movement will definitely put pressure on the government, which in turn may try to disrupt the rallies citing coronavirus fears.
“The government may detain some opposition leaders and try to disrupt their public rallies schedule under the pretext of coronavirus pandemic, so a kind of standoff may persist for some time,” Hussain added.