ISLAMABAD: With the federal budget for 2025-26 just weeks away, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari rolled up to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office on Monday with a list of demands – and some powerful support.
Bilawal, leading a high-powered party delegation, met with Sharif for the second time in just two weeks, fuelling speculation about behind-the-scenes budget wrangling between the PPP and its uneasy coalition partner, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N).
The details of the meeting and what the PPP leader wants are unclear, but sources say the requests are important and likely tied to key budget priorities for the party.
The meeting, officially billed as a “consultation,” is being seen as a strategic push by the PPP to cash in on its alliance with the PML-N by influencing the federal purse strings.
The sources said that Bilawal’s proposals could shake up the fiscal plan – and the timing, so close to budget season, has political watchers on high alert.
While budget talks may have dominated the closed-door meeting, the delegation also used the opportunity to play up unity amid rising tensions with India.
“All political parties stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our brave armed forces,” the PPP delegation reportedly told the PM, praising the government’s diplomatic blitz against what they called India’s “war intentions.”
Sharif did not hold back either – blasting India for its “provocative behaviour” after the Pahalgam incident, and warning New Delhi that Pakistan is ready to “give a befitting response.”
He slammed India’s alleged attempts to pin the blame on Pakistan “without a shred of evidence” and called its move to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty a “water war.”
“We’re taking this to the UN,” Sharif vowed. “The world will see India’s ugly face.”
Also on the agenda: a major shake-up in the power sector. The meeting reportedly finalised a plan to hand over electricity distribution companies to the provinces within two months.
The PPP delegation, including top names such as Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi, and Raja Pervez Ashraf, gave the green light to the federal government’s reform agenda, signalling rare agreement amid, otherwise, tense coalition dynamics.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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