ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that PML-N has no reason to worry in case of any talks between the army and PTI.
In an interview with Voice of America Urdu on Thursday, he was asked if his party would have a problem with any talks between the military and the opposition PTI, to which he said, “I don’t think we will face any problems and there is no mindset in the military to it was meddling in politics again.” After days of speculation that he might soften his anti-establishment stance, jailed PTI founder Imran Khan on Tuesday categorically stated that his party was ready for talks with the military establishment.
Talking to journalists at Adiala jail, the PTI founder laid down three preconditions: return of his party’s “stolen mandate”, release of all detained party workers and holding transparent elections.
On the development in today’s interview, Iqbal said that according to the army spokesperson, the army has clearly and categorically stated that it has decided to separate itself from politics at an institutional level after the “experience of 2018”.
Iqbal questioned that if Imran believed that the military establishment should remain neutral on politics, then why did he agree to deal with him.
He said the PTI should apologize to the institutions, adding that the party’s offensive stance against the state would do no good.
“On the one hand, Imran says that the army should be neutral […] then he says that animals are neutral. He said the army chief is the father of the nation and then called them Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq,” Iqbal said.
“Imran said he is fighting for civilian rule and the military has no role in politics. If the army is not supposed to participate in politics, then what kind of dialogue do they want to have with it? Iqbal asked.
