Islamabad: Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Sunday discussed various options, including mobilising voters, against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
Bilawal Bhutto, along with a delegation of senior PPP leaders, visited the Raiwind Palace residence of the Sharif family to discuss the current political situation with Maryam Nawaz.
The meeting comes a time when the country’s anti-graft agency, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), has been pursuing investigations against the main leaders of the two parties arresting co-chairman of the PPP Asif Ali Zardari (Bilawal’s father) and his sister Faryal Talpur as well as PML-N Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz.
All these arrests were made during the last week and, according to reports, the NAB has now set its gaze in the direction of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former water and power minister Khwaja Mohammad Asif — both stalwarts of PML-N.
PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif is already in jail while Shahbaz Sharif is on bail.
A statement issued after the meeting between the young leaders said they agreed to carry forward the Charter of Democracy reached between their elders — assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif — in London back in 2006, when they were in exile during Musharraf era.
Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto also agreed that it would not be in the interest of democracy and rule of law if the PTI government is allowed to continue.
They also discussed the 2019-20 budget presented by the PTI government in the National Assembly and termed it anti-people, IMF-guided financial document.
In the meeting it was also decided that other like-minded opposition parties would be approached, and an All Parties Conference would be held later this month, to consider various options to usher in a new government.
The PPP delegation was received by Maryam Nawaz, former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, Maryam’s husband Retd Capt Mohammad Safdar, Ayaz Sadiq, Pervaiz Rasheed and Rana Sanaullah.
Meanwhile, special assistant to Pakistan PM Imran Khan on information, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, said the meeting between the “convicted princess of the House of Sharif” and the “crown prince of the state of Zardaris” at Raiwind palace had nothing to do with democracy.
In a tweet,she expressed the hope that for satisfaction of courts, the two would give a clear agenda for bringing back Maryam’s absconding brothers and other Sharif family members and inform the nation about it.