Pak Govt. ready to discuss Bilawal's four demands

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has reportedly agreed to hold a dialogue with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the four demands put forward by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

According to The Express Tribune, the PML-N used backdoor measures to signal the talks and conveyed the message through a friend of Zardari.

The ruling party also said in the message that it does not want to indulge in a political battle with the PPP and wants to negotiate on its demands.

Earlier in October, Bilawal demanded that the federal government appoint a full-time foreign minister, form a parliamentary panel on national security, pass the opposition's bill to probe the Panamagate scandal and implement the resolution passed in May last year by an all-parties conference on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and gave the government time till December 27 to accept the demands.

According to sources, the PPP has started consultations with senior leaders and most likely the party will show a softer stance toward the PML-N government by not taking to streets as it had earlier threatened.

"The PPP's main demand is to stop the political victimisation of its leaders," a senior PPP leader said, adding that Zardari and others leaders are annoyed with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for using paramilitary Rangers and other agencies against the PPP.

"Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (PML-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman have also been given the task by the Prime Minister to woo PPP leadership on this issue," sources said.

Zardari, who recently returned to the country after an 18-month- long self-imposed exile, yesterday held meetings with the PPP leaders to deliberate different options including talks with the government as well as a possible alliance against it.