Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar is expected to leave for Dubai Saturday to meet former president Asif Ali Zardari, a private news channel reported.

Dar is taking the trip on the advice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bid to ease tensions between the two parties, a source said, declining to be named.

Several senior leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), including its Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, are present in Dubai. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is also expected to arrive in Dubai on Saturday.

The PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) since the Panama revelations, documents that revealed offshore assets of the Sharif family, are at loggerheads.

However in recent weeks unity of the joint opposition had fizzled out after the PTI threatened of an anti-government movement in August. The PTI chief Imran Khan also made a controversial statement last week claiming that Pakistanis would distribute sweets if the army stages a coup.

Matters such as the extension of special powers of the Pakistan Rangers in Sindh, who have played a major role in curbing crime in Karachi, may be discussed in the meeting.

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 Sindh Rangers were given special powers under Article 147 in 2013. Since then, the paramilitary force has apprehended 533 suspects in multiple targeted operations, most of which took place in interior Sindh.