By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday held formal reconciliatory talks with the government, aimed at cooling political instability in the 241-million South Asian nation, both sides said.
The talks come a day ahead of a crucial court ruling in a land corruption case against the 72-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician.
The verdict in the graft case due on Friday is the largest that Khan faces in terms of financial impropriety, involving possible bribes of land in return for a 190-million-British-pound favor to a real estate tycoon.
The case is linked to the Al-Qadir Trust that Khan and his wife set up while he was in office. Prosecutors say it was a front for Khan to receive land as a bribe from a real estate developer. Khan’s party says the land was not for personal gain but was a spiritual educational institution.
Khan’s removal from office in 2022 stoked the instability, which has worsened with his party leading violent protests to urge his release, and threatens an economic recovery under a $7 billion IMF bailout.
“We have presented our demands to the government,” Khan’s aide Omar Ayub, who is leading his side in the talks, told reporters. The government agreed to party leaders’ meeting with Khan in jail, which should be done without any monitoring, he said.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s demands mainly include setting up two judicial commissions to probe into the events which led to his arrest in August 2023, and the protest rallies, including one on , 2023, when his supporters rampaged through military offices and installations.
Speaker of the parliament Ayaz Sadiq who is facilitating both the parties said he had received the PTI’s list of demands.
“We will respond to the demands within seven working days,” said Iran Siddique, lead negotiator from the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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