Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday rejected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s renewed offer of talks, describing it as “sheer duplicity” and a sign of political desperation.

Speaking to a private television channel, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram said party founder Imran Khan had authorised Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas to engage in dialogue if approached, but stressed that PTI itself did not wish to hold talks with the government.

He said the government’s approach reflected political panic and intellectual bankruptcy, accusing it of using dialogue as a tactic to mislead the public rather than address the country’s crises.

Akram also criticised demands for an apology from PTI, calling them another manifestation of political anxiety. He said the “imposed rulers” should not set preconditions for negotiations.

The PTI spokesperson claimed the prime minister was so powerless that he could not even arrange a meeting between Imran Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi.

Reiterating PTI’s stance, Akram said the party would not engage in negotiations with what he termed a “mandate-stealing” government, adding that the prime minister’s dialogue offer was contradictory and insincere.

He said if the government genuinely wanted a negotiated solution to the ongoing political and economic crises, it should engage with the leadership of the Tehreek Tahaffuz Aain Pakistan (TTAP).

A day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while addressing a federal cabinet meeting, had once again invited PTI for talks. He said he had repeatedly extended dialogue offers, including on the floor of the National Assembly, but maintained that negotiations would only be held on legitimate demands and that blackmail would not be tolerated.