Talks Collapse for Good, and PTI's Long March Finally Leaves Lakki Marwat

Two rounds of talks between the federal government and PTI, which negotiators on both sides described as having settled nearly every point on the table, broke down for good in the early hours of October 4 — and by the afternoon, PTI's long march had done what weeks of postponement had avoided and actually left the ground.

How close it came, and what broke it

The second round of talks ran from before 5pm on Saturday, October 3, through past midnight, in National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq's chamber — the same venue as Friday's inconclusive first round. Government negotiators included Rana Sanaullah, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Amir Muqam, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry; PTI's delegation was led by party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan.

By the sides' own account, the two delegations had closed the gap on almost everything — sources told reporters roughly 95 percent of the draft agreement had been settled. What remained unresolved was the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's refusal to put in writing that it would cooperate with federal counterterrorism operations in the province. Sanaullah said afterward that the government had revised the draft two or three times to try to accommodate KP's objections, without success. PTI's separate demand — that founder Imran Khan be allowed access to his personal physicians, or transferred from Adiala Jail to hospital for treatment — also went unresolved, carrying over from the first round's same sticking points. No date was set for a third round.

The march leaves the ground

Barrister Gohar told reporters after the talks collapsed that the long march remained "intact" and would proceed, and that imposing governor's rule or emergency measures on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not an answer to the standoff. PTI supporters from Lakki Marwat, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, North and South Waziristan and Bannu districts gathered at Lakki Marwat's Gandi Chowk and departed toward Islamabad at around 1pm on October 4 — the date PTI had already pushed back once, and which the party's own core committee had been weighing whether to delay again as recently as Saturday.

Sanaullah drew the government's line immediately: the long march, he said, "will not be allowed to enter the limits of Islamabad," and any attempt to create disorder would be met with the force of law. He added, however, that the door for further dialogue was not closed — a position that leaves both sides negotiating in public through statements again, the same pattern that had briefly given way to face-to-face talks over the preceding two days.

What hasn't moved

The province-wide Section 144 orders in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan that were written to outlast the march's original September 27 date remain in force, as does the roughly Rs1 billion security deployment built around Islamabad. The federal government's threat of governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also remains on the table, unresolved by a talks process that ultimately foundered on exactly the issue — KP's cooperation on counterterrorism — that threat was meant to pressure.

What to watch next

The practical question now is what happens where the march actually meets the government's stated red line. Sanaullah's comments suggest the state's plan is containment rather than negotiation at this stage — stopping the march before Islamabad's limits rather than continuing talks over its terms. Whether that holds, or whether another round of negotiation opens once the march is already on the road, should become clear within the next day.

Build Better Pakistan's Politics Desk is tracking the long march and the government's response as events develop.