‘I’m ready to hold talks, saying this for 18 months’: Imran Khan

• Will hold talks with everyone but three parties: Imran Khan.
• Ex-premier names three PTI leaders for holding negotiations.
• “They” should make whatever cases they want, he says.

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has said that he had been saying for 18 months that he was ready to hold negotiations but not for striking deal. 

Talking to journalists at the Adiala jail, Khan said negotiations had always been part of politics but they were held with opponents, not friends. He reiterated that his party would hold talks with everyone but the three parties.

“Someone who wants to leave the country or avoid imprisonment makes a deal,” he said. 

He named Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Omar Ayub and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Shibli Faraz for holding negotiations. 

“I have proposed these three names for talks and not a deal,” the incarcerated leader maintained. 

Khan also apprised the media that “they” were going to lodge the fourth case against him with regard to the Toshakhana gifts. They should make whatever the cases they wanted all at once, he added.

A day ago, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had claimed that his party was neither holding dialogues with anyone nor had any special message for talks.

Barrister Gohar, speaking to journalists outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, had said that former premier was facing “politically-motivated” cases. He added that the PTI founder requested the judiciary to give judgements on his cases at the earliest.

“Ali Amin Gandapur, Omar Ayub Khan and Shibli Faraz have been given the go-ahead to hold talks, but not to strike a deal,” Gohar said, adding that they were to talk to anyone except three political parties.