Welcome, if there are really serious negotiations between the government and the PTI. Welcome if the warring groups are really ready for reconciliation and consensus. If we act with goodwill, flexibility can come and a way can be found. If we adopt good dialogue even for a few months, bitterness can end. It will be happy if the state starts running with this reconciliation. It will not be difficult to handle matters with good manners, it will be good luck and happiness if these negotiations yield good results and we can move towards a national government. This state will be happy if this difficult path is cut short, this nation will be happy if political hatreds are buried!!!

This humble journalist has been pleading with each side for reconciliation, negotiations and peace for two years, but until it reached the ears of any party, everyone wanted to crush others on the horse of ego and the situation today is the result of this foolish zeal. Today, the state is nursing its wounds that have affected its reputation. PTI is hanging on its wounds, these wounds are the result of successive defeats. The government is also in pain that long-term planning is not being done and the people are in the worst trouble because this fight is increasing hopelessness and there is no way out of this fight, because this fight has brought us to the point of no return. When this humble journalist talked about reconciliation, each side showered him with insults. The PTI’s benefactors kept raining the most. Today, they themselves are increasingly talking about negotiations. I am happy about these things and also worried that the benefactors have taken a long time to come here. A lot of water has passed under the bridge. If this work had been done earlier, the PTI could have received huge relief, but now the chances of that have diminished.

If it is not considered a bitter criticism, then it is said that after the February 8 elections, the ruling party was under pressure, it was afraid of the popularity of the PTI and feared that the setup it had formed would not work in the absence of reconciliation. At that time, they were ready to release Khan and put him under house arrest and even to form a rigging commission. Now the situation has changed completely. The ruling party no longer fears the PTI, and it no longer fears that this setup will not work. In February 2024, there were hidden supporters of the PTI within the ruling party. Now the entire ruling party unanimously considers the anti-Imran narrative as the narrative of the state. The most powerful people in the ruling party are convinced to the point of faith that “Mehraban” is working against the state army and on its agenda on some signal, so they are ready to go to the extreme to stop him. The PTI has neutralized its own popularity by holding successive movements, rallies and marches. Street power is one thing and vote power is another. The vote power of PTI is a reality, but on the other hand, the lack of street power of PTI is also a bitter reality. The fact that not a single person came out from all over Punjab for the long march proves that PTI’s grip on its voters is weakening. In the post-February situation, the judiciary was giving decisions in favor of PTI, the ruling party was worried about the decisions of the judiciary at that time and reconciliation was considered the only way to resolve these issues, but now that the ruling party has united, the anti-government judiciary has become lifeless, the life of popularity has gone, the abuses of social media have become soulless and ineffective, the financial problems have not ended but have reduced to a great extent, now there is no risk of default. The stock market is going up, interest rates are coming down, and inflation has also come down overall. It is clear that these signs and events have made the authorities and the government more confident and stronger. PTI is currently in its weakest position. Being willing to negotiate without any conditions also shows that PTI does not want to go towards civil disobedience because the leadership outside the prison is convinced that there is no possibility of the civil disobedience movement succeeding.

The lack of seriousness in the talks at present can also be gauged from the fact that PTI has called for civil disobedience and on the other hand, the government has not released a single prisoner. If the talks were serious, PTI would have withdrawn the call for civil disobedience and the government would have released some prisoners to build confidence. Therefore, the talks are currently a NON STARTER.

The opponents of the PTI have now realized that it is not in a position to expel its people from Punjab. No matter how much the PTI tries, its own people will not stop paying their electricity, water or gas bills. The state has not yet become so weak that civil disobedience has become easy, nor is the PTI so strong that people will come into direct conflict with the state on the basis of party loyalty.

The biggest obstacle to negotiations, reconciliation and ultimately the proposals of the national government is distrust. The government still doubts whether Mehrban Khan is really serious about negotiations or not? The government is uncertain that Mehrban Khan can sabotage the negotiations any day, chargesheet the negotiating committee. On the other hand, the PTI is also not completely sure that it will get any relief as a result of these negotiations. It wanted to hold direct talks with the army, but the continued refusal of the ruling party has increased the frustration of the PTI. The PTI has to establish credibility and the government has to give it confidence, only then is some progress possible, otherwise the result will be zero plus zero…..

The government is not a fool who would leave or anger its patron, the ruling party, and make an agreement with the PTI. The government will first consult the ruling party and then be ready for negotiations. The government’s gain is the PTI’s loss and the PTI’s gain is the government’s loss, unless the ruling party is inclined to be kind, unless popularity gets the green signal of acceptance. Meaningful negotiations cannot take place and meaningful negotiations will take place only when the PTI, while demonstrating rationality, does not accept the current setup of the ruling party and parliament and does not adopt a defensive attitude on the incidents of May 9 and December. Either the popularity card is not the card in negotiations, but the rationality card will have to be played, otherwise the gate of acceptance will not be crossed.