Daily Times

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday reached out to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to chalk out a strategy for an anti-government movement.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held a meeting of the party’s core committee at Zardari House in Islamabad to discuss the ongoing financial crisis in the country.

The participants of the meeting included Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Farhatullah Babar, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Rehman Malik, Chaudhry Manzoor, Naveed Qamar, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Humayun Khan and Pulwasha Khan.

Briefing reporters on the meeting, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said Bilawal had invited the PML-N leadership to an Iftar dinner. “[PML-N leader] Maryam Nawaz can come to have Iftar with us,” Kaira said.

The opposition parties are gearing up to take on the government in the wake of the country’s financial crisis and increasing prices of essential commodities.

The PPP has already announced that it would launch an anti-government movement after Eidul Fitr against the rising inflation, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and deteriorating economic conditions. The PML-N will hold a meeting on May 20, to be chaired by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, to discuss its future course of action.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), has announced that his party would march on Islamabad and shut down the federal capital in protest against the government’s policies. The PPP leaders also said the party would lead anti-government protests inside and outside parliament.

“There are reports that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) intends to arrest PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari,” Kaira said. “We abide by the law and that’s why the PPP co-chairman appeared before the NAB,” he added. “But the law doesn’t allow arresting anyone without any evidence, and we won’t let the NAB chairman or anyone else to do that.”

Bukhari said the participants of the meeting discussed the 26th Amendment and southern Punjab province bills.