PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday met with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, where the two discussed the country’s political landscape, PPP’s media cell said.

The meeting comes amid political turmoil in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) after 10 legislators — all elected on PTI tickets in the July 2021 general elections — announced on Sunday that they were joining the PPP, which has been eyeing the premier’s slot in the region.

This has significantly increased the likelihood of the PPP becoming the ruling party.

In a post on X today, the PPP said that Bilawal met with the JUI-F chief at his residence in Islamabad today, where the two “discussed the country’s political landscape”.

The PPP chairman was accompanied by PPP leaders Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Humayun Khan and Jamil Soomro, while JUI-F’s Mualana Asad Mahmood attended the meeting as well.

Separately, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported that the two leaders “exchanged views on national issues and other matters of mutual interest.”

In the 53-member assembly, the PPP now enjoys the support of 27 members, followed by the PML-N with nine, PTI with five, and two regional parties with one member each. The group of PTI renegades led by Haq has been reduced to ten members.

The meeting comes a day after a senior JUI-F leader said his party would launch a ‘long march’ on Islamabad and a series of nationwide gatherings against flawed government policies leading to unabated inflation and unemployment, as well as injustices, in the country.

Speaking to journalists at the local press club on Sunday, JUI-F Secretary General MNA Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said that the government was completely disconnected from public issues and “the economy has been mortgaged to the IMF”.

“We will not accept IMF’s slave-like economic policies under any circumstances,” he declared.

With additional input from APP.