President Arif Alvi has offered to mediate between the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
In an interview with BBC Urdu on Thursday, Dr. Alvi said that it is now inevitable that simmering political tension be cooled down and advised political leadership to hold talks with each other.
“It is my offer to them [political parties] to sit together and then senior leadership can hold talks,” said Dr Alvi.
The president blamed social media when commenting on the misunderstandings between former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and PTI Chairman Imran Khan.
Misunderstandings began because of the undue importance given to social media, he reasoned, expressing the belief that the country’s decision-makers “are not able to handle social media properly” and that they should do a better job of it.
When pressed if the cause of “friction” between former premier and ex-army chief was the appointment of then director-general (DG) of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Faiz Hameed, President Alvi said that he would not talk about any specific person or incident.
“Who was not showing flexibility?” the President asked. “I was asking them to set-aside differences and ignore social media.”
“People can’t forgive,” he remarked.
Responding to a question about an extension in tenure offered to the former army chief by Imran Khan, President Alvi said he was not aware of such an offer.
“This is what I am saying. Remove such misunderstandings by having a dialogue together,” he stressed. “Be it any party, opposition, government or the establishment, I am ready to bring people together.”
The president said that Khan expressed satisfaction over the appointment of General Asim Munir as the current army chief when Alvi had consulted the PTI chairman. However, he said that he was not playing any role in conducting a dialogue between the current military leadership and Khan.
He emphasised his offers of negotiations between the government alliance and PTI, saying he had urged them to “sit together”.
“I am not talking about Imran Khan. I am saying that at least the political parties should negotiate with each other. After that, the major figures of the [political] parties can also meet,” he explained.
