Bilawal, Shahbaz concerned over govt ‘failure’ on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and President PML-N Shahbaz Sharif Monday discussed the current political situation in the country and proposed an all parties conference (APC) of the opposition.

During the telephonic conservation, they also expressed reservations about what they called the ‘government’s failures’ on Kashmir issue.

Bilawal said India was oppressing Kashmiris while Prime Minister Imran Khan was trying to provide reliefto the Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav. He said the country never saw such a peak during the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and accused the government of hiding the coronavirus figures and playing with the lives of the people of Pakistan.

He said rising inflation had made the life of people difficult and now they were looking towards the opposition. He was hopeful that decisions in the proposed APC would have significant implications on the future.

Shahbaz agreed with the views of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Though the opposition has agreed to call an APC after Eid, it has not yet decided the date. Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and President PML-N Shahbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari may not attend the parliamentary leaders briefing on Kashmir issue at Foreign Office today (Tuesday) but their respective party delegations will attend it.

According to sources, the delegation of the PPP and PML-N will attend it to represent their respective parties at a meeting of the parliamentary leaders on Kashmir at Foreign Office. Sources said Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have decided not to attend the briefing but will send their party delegations as the meeting at the Foreign Office was supposed to be chaired by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi instead of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

According to sources, when they found that instead of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is chairing it, they had decided to send their party delegations to attend the briefing on Kashmir at Foreign Office.

Sources said the PPP delegation will comprise parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate Sherry Rehman, former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Syed Naveed Qamar and Senator Mustafa Nawaz Kokhar while Leader of Opposition in the Senate and PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, PML-N Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly and ex-foreign minister Khawaja Asif and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will represent the PML-N.

According to PML-N sources, Shahbaz Sharif is not coming due to health issues as he was not even attended the National Assembly session and would be represented by the high level delegation.