PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has offered talks to the federal government, saying that his side has never backed away from dialogue.
Speaking to senior journalists in Peshawar, Afridi said the government should hold talks now if negotiations were going to take place later.
“We were ready for talks yesterday and are ready today as well. We have never backed down from negotiations,” Afridi said, according to the report.
He said the PTI had been approaching various institutions for the past nine months but claimed that its requests had not received a response. He said the party had therefore announced its protest call.
Afridi also alleged that the federal government was preventing a reconciliation between the provincial government and the establishment. He further criticised what he described as the prevailing political approach at the federal level.
The developments came amid preparations for the PTI’s planned march towards Islamabad. However, in a subsequent development on Friday night, Afridi announced that the party had postponed the march, originally scheduled for September 27, until October 4.