PPP to ‘fully participate’ in budget session

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Friday ended its token attending of the NA budget session and announced participating in the session to join the ongoing budget debate.

PPP Information Secretary Shazia Marri announced that that the PPP would participate in the budget session of the National Assembly today (Saturday). “We are attending the NA session on Saturday and will also participate in the budget debate,” she said, adding that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had directed all PPP legislators to ensure their attendance in the budget session and participate in the budget debate.

Marathon meetings between the negotiating committees of the PPP and the PMLN moved ahead with a positive progress on Friday. The committees held two rounds of dialogue for about four and a half hours. The first round of talks was related to Punjab and the second to rationalizing ongoing development projects (non-Sindh) under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

Sources said meetings related to Punjab would continue in the coming days as the PPP wanted that the power sharing in Punjab needed to be seen at all levels. The sources said both the parties were positive in the meeting and the PPP was hopeful that the PMLN would accept its demands and its concerns about Punjab and the PSDP would be addressed. The PMLN committee assured the PPP of holding talks with the provincial government with regard to PPP concerns in Punjab. The PPPP delegation included Senator Sherry Rehman, Naveed Qamar, Khursheed Shah, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nadeem Afzal Chan and Ali Gillani while the government committee included National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah and Kh Saad Rafiq.