LAHORE: A meeting of the Punjab leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party was held here on Wednesday under the chair of President Asif Ali Zardari.

The meeting, convened at Bilawal House after a dinner hosted by President Zardari for PPP parliamentarians and ticket-holders from Punjab, was attended by Governor Saleem Haider, former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Syed Hassan Murtaza, among others.

Punjab Information Secretary Shehzad Cheema told reporters during a break in the meeting that the gathering mostly focused on party re-organisation matters, while relations with the ruling PML-N also came under discussion. He would not elaborate on the hiccups in the ties between the PPP and PML-N but said President Zardari informed the participants about the difficulties facing the country and the party, assuring the audience that the issues would be resolved shortly.

He said that the no-show by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif to receive President Zardari at Lahore airport upon his arrival in the city did not figure in the discussion because, he said, the party did not focus on such petty issues.

Regarding the recent federal cabinet decision to allow a premier intelligence agency to tap phone calls of suspects, Mr Cheema said that earlier the practice was carried out illegally, whereas now it has been brought under the ambit of the law. However, he said that the PPP has consistently been against tapping phone calls of citizens.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2024