ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: A team of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) leaders will leave for Dubai Friday morning to attend a presentation made by a delegation of International Republican Institute (IRI) of the United States to the party chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, sources told Dawn on Thursday.

The sources said the IRI team was scheduled to meet Ms Bhutto and her team on Saturday (tomorrow) to discuss the issues related to the upcoming general elections in Pakistan.

Those leaving for Dubai are Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Qasim Zia and Foreign Liaison Committee member Palwasha Behram.

Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, who had also been invited to the briefing by Ms Bhutto, is not going to Dubai because of some family engagements. Secretary-General Pakistan People’s Party Jahangir Badar is also awaiting the permission of the Ministry of Interior to leave the country, as he has been put on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Pleading ignorance about the exact agenda of the Dubai meeting, they said Ms Bhutto had asked them to reach Dubai and they only knew that an IRI team was coming to Dubai for a meeting with Ms Bhutto.— Staff Reporter