ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday nominated a three-member committee from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to hold a dialogue with the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on the country’s “ongoing political crisis,” the PTI said.

The development follows a day after Khan held a meeting with a JI delegation led by its leader Siraj-ul-Haq, who had separately met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to find a solution to Pakistan’s worsening political crisis.

The South Asian country has been racked with political instability after Khan was ousted from office via a parliamentary vote in April last year. The former premier has since then been demanding protesting for snap elections, a demand PM Sharif and his ruling coalition government have categorically rejected.

To pressure the government into announcing early elections, Khan’s PTI and its ally dissolved the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provincial assemblies in January. However, the government has refused to budge from its stated position to hold polling for national and provincial assemblies as per schedule later this year, on the same day.

“On the instructions of Mr. Imran Khan Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, a committee is being notified to hold a dialogue with Jamat-e-Islami on the ongoing political crisis in the country,” a notification released by the PTI read.

Former Defense Minister Pervaiz Khattak, PTI senator Ejaz Chaudhry and another member of the party, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, were included in the committee.

The current political situation in the country has also created a rift between the government and Pakistan’s superior judiciary. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court took up the matter on delaying elections in Punjab and KP and directed Pakistan’s central bank to release Rs21 billion in funds to the election commission to conduct the polls.

The coalition administration has openly accused the apex court of playing a “leading role” in politics while asking it not to “trespass” on parliament’s territory.

The JI’s initiative is not the only one to bring the top PTI leadership to the negotiating table with the government amid a highly polarized political environment. Last month, a delegation of civil society organizations also held meetings with the two sides while trying to convince them to call an all-parties conference to iron out their differences.