Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry expressed on Saturday the government’swillingness to initiate negotiations with the opposition, saying thatLeader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif mayappoint a focal person for the purpose.
The minister was replying to a question about the government’s stance ifthe opposition leader extended an invitation for negotiations.
“While he [Shahbaz] hasn’t sent us a written request [for negotiations], wehave sent him one,” the minister said.
“We want to improve relations with the opposition. We wanted to talk tothem on reforms previously, and we want to talk to them on the matter now,”he said while speaking to the media in Lahore.
Chaudhry also stressed the significance of the PML-N and the PPP resolvingdifferences within their respective parties.
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“Maryam and Shahbaz need to settle their dispute so that they [the PML-N]have a clear policy. Similarly, Bilawal and Faryal [Talpur] need to havethe same policy so that the PPP’s policy becomes clear.”
He went on to say that the three major players in the opposition includingPPP, PML-N and Pakistan Democratic Movement chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman haddifferent policies, which resulted in a weak opposition that had no defineddirection.
However, he added that the government acknowledged that the opposition hadan important role in Pakistan, and he personally was of the opinion thatthe opposition needed to support measures taken by the government onimportant matters such as electoral reforms.
