Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar shared on Friday that his party chief Imran Khan will skip the federal government’s all-parties conference (APC) scheduled for February 7.

The statement of the PTI leader came as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed the invitation he had extended to the PTI chief at an apex committee meeting in Peshawar.

During the apex committee meeting in Peshawar, PM Shehbaz without naming the PTI chief, said: “I have also invited the person who does not want to even shake hands with me,” adding, “all parties are invited to APC and Apex committee meetings and I hope that it will not be rejected”.

“We need to fight the menace of terrorism by setting our differences aside and move forward,” said the PM.

Recalling his time as opposition leader in the National Assembly, the premier said: “Whenever he [Imran Khan] wrote a letter to me, he never wrote my name on it, however, I always responded with my name and my signature on the letter.”

‘How can we sit with them?’

On the other hand, PTI leader Umar, while speaking to the press outside Lahore High Court, said: “How can we sit with them [PDM-led government] while cases are being registered against us?”

“The Constitution is being violated by registering cases of treason against the opponents and all the government resources are devoted to arrests and detentions,” he told the media.

While mentioning the by-elections he said: “Governors are not ready to provide the dates for the elections,” adding that 220 million people of Pakistan will not allow anyone to seize their rights.

The prime minister seeks to bring heads of all political parties to the table so they can join heads and figure out ways to address “important national challenges”.

The invitation was a major development as the PDM government and the PTI have always been at loggerheads over almost all national issues, before  Khan’s ouster from the PM Office.