After flood-aid spat, Maryam and Bilawal trade warm messages

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday thanked Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif for what he called a “warm welcome and positive gesture” after she publicly greeted him on his visit to Punjab.

Responding to a post on X by Maryam, Bilawal wrote: “Thank you, Madam Chief Minister, for the warm welcome and positive gesture.” 

In her message, Maryam had said: “I extend a warm welcome to @BBhuttoZardari on his visit to Punjab. Punjab is your home, and you will always find a place of respect here."

"Thank you for your gracious remarks. You have my heartfelt good wishes and prayers,” she added.

In October, Maryam had asserted that her government had neither complained nor sought help from anyone for assisting flood-affected citizens, saying that Punjab would handle the crisis through its own resources. 

“I did not stretch my hands before anyone. I have protected the self-respect of Punjab’s people,” she said, in an apparent reference to Bilawal’s appeal to the Centre to seek international assistance for flood victims.

Earlier in September, the PPP chief had criticised the “delay” in initiating this process, calling it “beyond comprehension” and pointing out that such appeals were standard practice for disasters of this scale internationally. 

He noted that similar steps had been taken for the last floods when he was foreign minister, as well as for the 2010 floods and the 2005 earthquake.

The two key allies were subsequently engaged in a searing war of words that began over flood compensation through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). 

The verbal bickering later subsided after the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) scrambled a delegation comprising Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, who met President Asif Ali Zardari in Nawabshah.