ISLAMABAD: Pakistani interior minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday “serious negotiations” to end a lingering political crisis in the country could only be held with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a week after ex-premier Imran Khan appealed for talks with state officials.

Pressure has increased on the popular opposition leader amid a crackdown on his top aides and supporters that has seen thousands arrested as well as many leaving his party. The takedown, which Khan has called a “systematic dismantling” of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, comes after his supporters stormed and set ablaze a number of military installations across the country last month following Khan’s detention in a land fraud case. Though Khan was released on bail just days later, the government and military announced that those behind the violence would be punished, including through military court trials. The Sharif administration has also threatened to ban the PTI for instigating the violence.

The embattled politician last week said he was ready to form a commission to hold talks with “powerful people,” widely seen as a reference to the military. He has repeatedly said the Sharif government is “irrelevant.”

Khan has been embroiled in a tussle with the military since he was removed from power last year in a parliamentary vote that he says was orchestrated by the country’s top generals. The military denies this.

“If serious negotiations are desired, they can only be done with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif,” Sanaullah wrote in a Twitter post.

Before Sanaullah’s tweet, Sharif turned down the offer of talks by Khan, saying “anarchists and arsonists” who attacked symbols of the state did not qualify for dialogue.

Sharif’s rejection of the talks’ offer dashed hopes of the lowering of political tensions amid stalled talks between the International Monetary Fund and cash-strapped Pakistan, which is currently trying to avoid a default.

The former international cricket star became prime minister in 2018 with the tacit support of the military, though both sides denied it at the time. He later fell out with generals and was ousted as prime minister after losing a parliamentary confidence vote in 2022.

Khan has since then been campaigning for a snap election, with rallies with his supporters across the country, but Sharif, who replaced him, has rejected the call for an early election.

Under the constitution, the next vote is due in October when the parliament completes its term.