Ready to talk with Imran Khan: PPP

Islamabad: The Pakistan Peoples Party-led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that it is ready to talk with jailed former prime minister Imran Khan if the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder is willing to engage, amidst heightened political instability in the cash-strapped country.

“It is being said that the PTI founder is ready to talk. If Imran Khan is ready to talk then that’s a positive thing,” Senior PPP leader Khurshid Shah said while speaking to the media in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

Shah welcomed the possibility of talks as a positive development.

“President Asif Ali Zardari has always tried to solve problems through negotiations, and the PPP would play its role if needed,” Shah was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune newspaper.

The PPP’s willingness to engage with Khan’s party comes amidst heightened political instability, following the PTI’s hard-line stance against the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government.

The PPP, along with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and other allies, supports the PML-N of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The two former rivals recently witnessed a war of words. The ruling PML-N accepted all the demands of PPP over the federal budget.

Since Khan’s ouster through a vote of no confidence in 2022, the PTI has maintained a strong opposition to the PPP-PML-N alliance.agencies