Sheikh Waqas Akram, a Member of National Assembly (MNA) affiliated to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has said his party would not negotiate with the government or the establishment ahead of their planned nationwide protest this weekend.

“There is no possibility of negotiations with the government or the establishment before the protest,” Akram said in an interview with Host Geo News’ program ‘Naya Pakistan’ on Sunday.

Jailed PTI founder Imran Khan had last week called on his followers to protest in Islamabad on November 24.

“Imran Khan says this is the last call for a protest against the government. The PTI founder has stressed that the entire party leadership will be part of the march,” his lawyer Faisal Chaudhry said after a meeting at Adiala jail.

The protest would not only take place in Islamabad, but across Pakistan and across the world where Imran’s supporters were present, Chaudhry said.

The party has made four demands – revoke the 26th draft constitution, restore democracy and the constitution, return the mandate of the public and release all “innocent political” prisoners.

Lawyer Chaudhry said the party founder had also formed a committee for the march and asked not to reveal the names of those who were in it as Imran feared they would be arrested.

Khan has been behind bars since August 2023 after he was convicted in the Toshakhana case and subsequently convicted in other cases.

Moving on, host Shahzad Iqbal of ‘Naya Pakistan’ program quoted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah as saying that the PTI protest was not a big deal for the government and the opposition party would not benefit from this.

In response, Akram said that Sanaullah had earlier said that they would not be able to cross the Attock bridge but his party did. He also said that the party workers would stay there until the goals were achieved.

“We will not leave (the protest site) until the goals of the protest are achieved,” he maintained.

To a question, he said that Defense Minister Khawaja Asif was not someone who said that people in PTI were endangered. If it was, he should be happy instead of worrying about it, he added.

Earlier, in the same programme, Sanaullah, who holds the portfolio of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, said PTI’s call was not a challenge to the government.

He also said that the opposition party called for the protest without doing homework and this call would backfire and cause huge damage to the party.

The Prime Minister offered the PTI to have a political dialogue, he said, adding, but the dialogue was not in the PTI founder’s policy.