Everyone is talking about talks, but no one wants to talk.

The glaring contradiction measures the difference between optics and hard reality. Within the optics domain, everyone desires to look and sound reasonable. The hard reality, on the other hand, is based on a cold and calculated assessment of the situation and the advantage that accrues in a zero-sum conflict.

So why is Fawad Chaudhry insisting all combatants sit down and talk? Is he living in cuckoo land?

This week, he, along with former PTI leaders Imran Ismail, Mehmood Maulvi and Dr Shahzad Wasim, organised the first meeting of the National Dialogue Committee in Islamabad. NDC, as it is called, has been formed to initiate some form of dialogue between important stakeholders in order to, as Fawad Chaudhry says, 'lower the temperature' in the country. The meeting was attended, among others, by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as well as members from MQM, Jamaat-e-Islami, other parties and senior lawyers and journalists. At the end of the meeting, a declaration was announced which urged various confidence-building measures between the government and the opposition.

So far so good.

Here's the problem, though. The establishment is in no mood to talk to the PTI. Unless on its own terms. Imran Khan is in no mood to talk to the establishment. Unless on his own terms. The PML-N is in no mood to enable the establishment and Imran Khan to talk to each other. Unless such talking burns any remaining bridges between them. The rest........

© The Express Tribune