Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is willing to hold talks with arch-rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
Photo : File
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said he is willing to hold talks with arch-rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the “larger national interest”, He said that the ruling alliance has put its politics first to save the country.
The Prime Minister addressed Imran Khan in his speech at the launching ceremony of Youth Development and said that he did not shake hands for four years but despite this they are asking us to negotiate but we are ready to negotiate in the interest of the country.
Refusing to divulge details about the possible backchannel talks with the PTI, PM Shehbaz said he is ready to “sacrifice everything” for national interest and added that the incumbent rulers sacrificed their political capital by taking tough economic decisions to save the country from default.
His statement comes as former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan has warned the government of holding a long march to Islamabad if the date for early elections is not announced in a few days.
The ousted prime minister on Monday admitted that the next general elections are linked with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif’s consent, saying elections won’t take place until the PML-N supremo took a decision.
Imran – while further admitting that the back-channel negotiations were somewhat ongoing with the powerful stakeholders – said that there wasn’t much clarity in talks till now.
In this ceremony ,PM Shehbaz also announced initiatives of providing 20,000 internships to young engineers and 75 scholarships to students for studies in the top universities of the world.
The Ministry of Planning and Development will carry out the youth initiatives, which also include spending Rs40 billion in 20 most underdeveloped districts and building 250 mini sports complexes.
The prime minister said the programme would be expanded further and more initiatives would be launched for the youth, who were a considerable part of the population.
Referring to his initiatives as Punjab chief minister, he said the government of PML-N under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif had undertaken different programmes for providing high-quality education, scholarships and laptops to millions of students.
PM Shehbaz said his provincial government set up Punjab endowment fund and in eight years Rs20 billion were given as scholarships to high achievers in studies.
Millions of students were equipped with technical education under the Punjab Skills Development Programme, he added.
