Bilawal meets Maryam at Jati Umra

LAHORE: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari arrived at Jati Umra to meet PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Sunday.

The PPP chairman was accompanied by Qamar Zaman Kaira, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Hassan Murtaza and other party leaders during the meeting with Maryam.

PML-N leaders Rana Sanaullah, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Maryam Aurangzeb and others were also in attendance.

Mr Bhutto Zardari met Maryam at her invitation to discuss current political situation following the 2019 budget and recent arrests of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur and Punjab Assembly opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz.

The PML-N leader had said in a tweet a day earlier that the meeting with the PPP leader was finalised after taking Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif into confidence.

“This & all other decisions in the party are taken after the approval of MNS [Mian Nawaz Sharif] & MSS [Mian Shehbaz Sharif’ & taking the senior leaders into confidence. Discipline & part hierarchy are followed by all including me,” she tweeted.

Speaking to the media yesterday, Mr Bhutto-Zardari confirmed Maryam had invited him for a meeting on Sunday (today) at her place and “I will be meeting her.”

This will be the second meeting between the two in less than a month. Previously, they had met in May when the PPP chairman hosted an Iftar dinner for the leaders hailing from the opposition parties at Zardari House in Islamabad.

Former President Asif Ali Zardari, Hamza Shahbaz, Ayaz Sadiq, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain, PTM leaders Ali Wazir, Muhsin Dawar, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Liaqat Baloch, PPP leaders Khurshid Shah, Raza Rabbani, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Yousuf Raza Gillani among others attended the event.

It is to be noted that the opposition parties, PPP and PML-N, are rattled by the recent arrests of their top brass at the hands of NAB. Moreover, the opposition has decided to hold an anti-government protest.