ANP calls all parties moot on May 3 to forge poll consensus

In order to forge a national consensus on holding simultaneous elections in the country amid the current political crisis, the Awami National Party has decided to call an All Parties Conference on May 3, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday. 

Sources divulged that the ANP is making contact with other political parties in this connection. 

The APC will be held at Marriot Hotel in Islamabad. 

After remaining aloof from mainstream politics, the ANP has decided to hold an All Parties Conference at the national level.

All political parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf are being invited to the APC. 

Sources, however, said that if the PTI accepts the invite, then Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam would not participate in the APC. And if the JUI does not participate in the moot, then the APC will fail before it takes place. 

Currently, the PTI and PDM-led government teams are holding talks over the matter of conducting elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

But it does not seem that the parleys, the final round of which is going to be held on May 2, will yield any positive result owing to the hawkish stance adopted by the negotiators from both sides. 

JUI Chief Maulana Fazl and some hardliners in the PML-N including Defence Minister Khawaja Asif are not in favour of indulging in negotiations with the PTI. 

Reporter Sajid Baloch