PPP Information Secretary Shazia Marri said on Monday that Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, who has accompanied Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to Japan, was on a “private visit” and bearing her own expenses.

Bilawal is on a four-day visit to Japan, where he arrived on Saturday, following an invitation from the Japanese government. A day ago, the foreign minister had met the Pakistani diaspora in Tokyo, where his sister Aseefa was seen alongside him.

After the meeting, Twitter was abuzz with questions over Aseefa’s presence at the official visit, with a number of people calling it a misuse of taxpayer money.

Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said there was nothing new in the picture. “In dynasties, new masters of the enslaved nation are prepared at the expense of the people.”

“In this country, democracy is being killed day and night. Be it PPP or PML-N, they are families that have princesses and princes … and other people of the party have the status of courtiers and nobles,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Ali Awan slammed FM Bilawal for “taking his sister on an official trip” when the country was on the “brink of default”.

“Isn’t it cruel to use the tax money of the people of the country in danger of bankruptcy?”

However, talking to Dawn.com, Marri said Aseefa was “on a private visit at her own expenses” and was not attending official meetings.

“She has only attended Pakistani community and Friends of Pakistan business community events,” the PPP information secretary said.

“Our political opponents have raised it, but there is no merit in this campaign,” Marri added.