LONDON, Nov 26: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto and party’s other senior leaders arrived in London on Saturday with the officially declared aim of holding a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the party.

Ms Bhutto reached here on Saturday from Geneva where she had appeared before a court on Friday in connection with a money laundering case.

Former chief minister of Punjab and Pakistan Muslim League (N) president Shahbaz Sharif is already here. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is expected in London to see his son, Hassan Nawaz, who is undergoing treatment for an illness described as ‘genuinely serious’ by sources in the Pakistan High Commission.

Well-placed official sources confirmed that former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali was in London until a few days back. Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was also in London recently.

When contacted by Dawn, the top leadership of the PML-N and the PPP neither confirmed nor dismissed the possibility of contacts or a meeting between Ms Bhutto and Mr Shahbaz Sharif over the next couple of days.

Asked if he would be meeting Ms Bhutto in the next couple of days, Mr Shahbaz Sharif said: “I don’t know when she is coming. We will see when she is here.”

In reply to a question if Mr Nawaz Sharif was expected in London soon and what was the possibility of a meeting between the two former prime ministers, Mr Shahbaz Sharif said: “I don’t know the exact date, but hopefully he (Nawaz) would be here soon.”

Mr Shahbaz Sharif and Ms Bhutto have had a brief interaction in London in March this year at the wedding ceremony of former high commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hassan’s son. On the occasion, the two had expressed the desire to meet in London sometime in future.

Leader of opposition in the Senate and a member of the PPP’s Central Executive Committee, Raza Rabbani told Dawn that he was ‘unaware’ of any meeting scheduled between the PPP chairperson and the PML-N leadership.

Answering a question about speculation that Mr Jamali and Mr Jatoi could also be arriving in London, or were already here, to explore the possibility of forming a grand political alliance on the pattern of the defunct MRD, Senator Rabbani said: “Mr Jamali is a member of the PML-Q and he has not distanced himself from the party yet. Mr Jatoi’s sons are ministers in Sindh. They should ponder these facts if they wish to join the opposition.”