Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday rejected reports of differences between Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and his father Asif Ali Zardari as “baseless”, adding that the PPP chairman had departed for Dubai on a scheduled visit.

The rebuttal comes after several news channels reported that Bilawal had suddenly departed for Dubai without informing the party leadership.

The reports alleged the departure was linked to tensions between the father-son duo following a recent interview by Zardari, in which he had said that Bilawal was not yet fully trained while commenting on his political journey.

“He’ll take time,” Zardari had said in an interview with Geo News on Thursday. Acknowledging that Bilawal was “more talented, educated and better spoken than me”, Zardari had said: “But experience is experience.”

During the interview, Zardari was asked about Bilawal’s recent statement in which he had urged the nation to let older politicians “stay at home” and to give someone new a chance in the general elections.

In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), PPP Central Information Secretary Faisal Karim Kundi said: “Bilawal left for Dubai yesterday afternoon according to his schedule after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa visit.

“Rumours regarding differences between the PPP chairman and president Zardari are baseless,” he said.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman also reiterated the same. “Don’t know why the panicked reporting on some channels. Chairman Bilawal left for Dubai yesterday late afternoon exactly as scheduled,” she said.

Further, PPP’s Shazia Marri told media that Bilawal left for Dubai after the end of his KP tour for “personal engagements”. She said there was “nothing surprising” about the visit and Bilawal would return soon.

Marri said the reason for the visit was not what was being reported in the media, adding that an attempt to “sensationalise” the matter was underway.