Zardari, Sharif meet in Lahore

Lahore: Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari Saturday met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore.

The former president reached Sharif's residence in a helicopter and the latter personally received him from the helipad, Dawn online reported.

The two are expected to discuss the ongoing political stalemate induced by the protests by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in Islamabad.

Zardari, who was invited by Sharif, will be accompanied by senior PPP leaders Raza Rabbani, Aitzaz Ahsan and Khurshid Shah, who is also the opposition leader in the National Assembly.

The premier will be accompanied by Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister Saad Rafique and Minister of States and Frontier Regions, Abdul Qadir Baloch, in the meeting.

Baloch has replaced Pervez Rashid in the PML-N team which will be meeting Zardari.

The prime minister had called Zardari Friday for the meeting.

The PTI and the government resumed talks Friday night.

However, talks between the government and PAT have not progressed enough to reach a definitive point.

On Friday, members of the National Assembly (NA) or lower house of parliament belonging to the PTI, submitted their resignations to the parliament's secretariat as part of their protest.

The political campaigns launched by PTI chairman Imran Khan and Tahir ul Qadri of the PAT Aug 15 demanding Sharif's resignation, have been condemned by the legal fraternity in Pakistan, including bar associations across provinces, for putting the parliamentary and democratic system in the country in peril.

The sit-in protests by the PTI and PAT continued in Islamabad for the eighth day Saturday.