–PML-N senior leader had invited the PPP chairman for a meeting at her Raiwind residence
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Saturday invited Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for a meeting on Sunday.
According to PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, Bilawal has accepted the invitation and will arrive at Raiwind in the afternoon. It has further been confirmed that a few important leaders from both sides will attend the meeting as well.
Media reports said that the two leaders will discuss the post-budget political environment in addition to the arrest of their respective fathers – Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari – in corruption references.
In a tweet later in the day, Maryam Nawaz clarified that the meeting with Bilawal was finalised after taking Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif into confidence.
“All the decisions in the party are taken after the approval of Mian Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif and other senior leaders. Discipline and part hierarchy are followed by all including me,” she said.
Last month, Maryam had been invited to an iftar hosted by Bilawal for opposition parties. After the event, the opposition parties held a joint press conference and announced to “launch protests inside and outside the parliament after Eidul Fitr” and hold an All Parties Conference (APC) to “chalk out a joint strategy on how to tackle the problems facing Pakistan”.
Bilawal had said at the time that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman has called an APC after Eid in which a joint strategy against the government will be finalised.
The JUI-F leader corroborated the plan himself, and said that “Pakistan is emerging as a weak country in the world due to some incapable people ascending to power.”
Rehman said that “during the APC, a joint strategy for all opposition parties will be identified so as to stabilise this sinking ship”
PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said at the time that “there is an agreement among opposition parties that the government has failed to run this county.”