Sharif to meet Zardari today

With anti-government protesters stepping up pressure on him to quit, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has invited former president and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari for a luncheon meeting here on Saturday to discuss issues related to the political impasse.

Sharif had a telephonic conversation with Zardari on Friday and invited him for the luncheon meeting on Saturday at the Prime Minister’s House. Zardari, co-Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), is currently in Karachi. He mostly lives in Dubai since stepping down last year at the end of his five-year term as the President.

Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the two leaders on Friday talked to each other and agreed to meet on Saturday. Both leaders are bound by the ‘Charter of Democracy’ signed between Sharif and former PPP leader Benazir Bhutto in 2006 to strengthen democracy, media reports said.