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PML-N Sends Top Team to Mend Fences with PPP Amid Escalating Rift over Flood Aid, Water Dispute
As tensions rise between PPP and PML-N over flood aid and Indus water rights, PM Shehbaz and President Zardari step in to defuse tensions. PML-N dispatches Ishaq Dar and Ayaz Sadiq to Nawabshah for talks.
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by Muhammad Hashir
2025-10-09
PML-N Sends Top Team to Mend Fences with PPP Amid Escalating Rift over Flood Aid, Water Dispute

The rift between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has intensified as both coalition allies continue to trade barbs over flood relief efforts and water rights on the Indus River.

Leaders from both parties have held daily press conferences targeting each other, deepening divisions within the ruling coalition. The PPP confirmed in a post on X that a telephone call had taken place between senior leaders, discussing the political situation, foreign policy, and flood aid distribution.

The spat worsened when Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif told the PPP leadership to “keep its advice to itself” over flood relief management. Speaking at a public gathering last week, Maryam refused to apologise for her remarks, accusing the PPP of “wrongful criticism” of the Punjab government.

In retaliation, the PPP — which governs Sindh — staged walkouts from the National Assembly and Senate, protesting what it described as the PML-N’s “disrespectful tone” and “uncooperative attitude.”

Amid escalating tensions, efforts to defuse the political standoff were launched by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari. The president also urged Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to play a mediatory role.

In a major reconciliation move, a high-level PML-N delegation comprising Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq flew to Nawabshah on Wednesday night to meet President Zardari. The visit, confirmed by the Presidency, was seen as an urgent attempt to ease growing political friction.

Naqvi — earlier summoned to Karachi by the president — also attended the meeting, signalling the seriousness of the situation.

While neither party issued an official statement detailing the talks, political observers said the move was likely endorsed by Nawaz Sharif, following his brother’s intervention to “bring down political temperatures.”

Sources within both parties confirmed that the dispute was “serious and anything but scripted.” The development came just hours after the PPP announced that it would convene its Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting on October 18, coinciding with the anniversary of the 2007 Karsaz bombing, to discuss the current political climate.

The timing of the CEC meeting has raised speculation that the PPP might take a decisive political step, including reconsidering its support for the PML-N at the federal level. Some insiders even suggested that PPP lawmakers in Punjab, where the party holds about a dozen seats, could move to the opposition benches.

However, analysts believe the alliance is unlikely to collapse, with insiders saying that “those who brokered this coalition will not allow it to disband.”
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