- Report says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked his FM to call on PPP leader and ‘ease tensions’
- PPP top leadership begins consultations in Dubai over extension to Rangers’ special power in Karachi
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is expected to have a meeting with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai, as the top PPP leadership met in the UAE capital city of Dubai on Sunday to discuss the current political scenario in Pakistan, especially the matter of extension in special policing powers for the paramilitary Rangers.
Dar is taking the trip on the advice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bid to ease tensions between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the PPP, a private TV channel reported, citing sources.
Both the political parties are expected to evaluate the threats to democracy which the country faces.
Several senior PPP leaders, including its Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, are already in Dubai.
In a meeting at Zardari’s Dubai residence on Saturday evening, the top party leadership discussed the matters in detail. The second session of the consultation will be held on Sunday (today).
The PPP and PML-N in the last few months were at loggerheads over the issue of Panama leaks— secret documents wherein the prime minister’s family was alleged to own offshore accounts.
However, in recent weeks unity of the joint opposition had fizzled out after the PTI threatened t launch an anti-government movement in August. PTI chief Imran Khan also made a controversial statement last week, claiming that Pakistanis would distribute sweets if the army staged a coup.
Matters such as the extension of special powers of the Pakistan Rangers in Sindh may be discussed during the PPP meeting in Dubai.
Due to the delay in extending the paramilitary force’s special powers in Sindh, the Rangers have stopped various activities to curb law and order including snap checking of vehicles and detaining suspected individuals.
The paramilitary force has played a major role in curbing crime in the southern metropolis of Karachi.
Since 2013, acting under powers bestowed on the paramilitary force under Article-147, the Pakistan Rangers Sindh conducted multiple targeted operations in interior Sindh during which 533 suspects were arrested. Those detained were handed over to the Police and various law enforcement agencies for processing.
The PML-N won the Azad Jammu Kashmir elections on Friday by a landslide majority, however the PPP alleged it of rigging.
During a telephonic conversation with party’s Secretary General in the region Chaudhary Latif Akbar on Friday, Bilawal said, “Narendra Modi was conquering occupied Kashmir while Nawaz Sharif was doing the same in Muzaffarabad.”