PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar claimed Monday that Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had contacted one of his party leaders for talks with the opposition.
“Pervez Khattak contacted us, you can confirm it,” Tarar told SAMAA TV’s Nadeem Malik. “Ask him to deny it on oath that he didn’t make contact, I will leave politics if he does so.”
Tarar added that the defence minister made a contact with Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. He didn’t, however, disclose what the two leaders discussed or talked about.
His remarks came a few hours after PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz told reporters in Lahore that the government has been trying to contact the opposition for talks but they have declined to sit with them.
Zartaj Gul, minister of climate change in PM Khan’s cabinet, categorically denied Tarar’s claim.
“No one has talked to them either in the speaker’s chamber or senate chairman’s chamber,” said Gul told Malik.
She said that the PTI’s government is a democratic one and it doesn’t hold backdoor talks with “criminals”, adding that they speak about everything in parliament.