Internews/Islamabad

An uptick in polio infections this year is helping to forge an unlikely alliance between the daughters of two political foes in Pakistan – incumbent Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the late Benazir Bhutto.
Aseefa Bhutto Zardari came up with the initiative this week as she offered assistance to Maryam Nawaz Sharif in freeing Pakistan of polio.
The initiative showed up on the social media website Twitter as well wherein Aseefa urged Maryam to ensure that the federal government diligently works to provide lady health workers with security especially during polio campaigns.
“I urge Maryam to take more of an active role. I am willing to help in any way for a polio free Pakistan,” she said. “Our war against polio should not become a byline to sit-ins and petty politics. We need to act now or face isolation.”  
Aseefa was the first child in Pakistan to be inoculated against polio in a nationwide programme launched by her mother Benazir.
The proposed new team-up is seen as significant in the larger context of a thaw in relations between Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N.
Both the ruling party and main opposition party are at the receiving end of a bitter campaign started by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik Insaf and Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek whose leaders have accused them of being venal and complicit in preserving a sham democracy.
The PTI has criticised the government for appointing Maryam as the chairperson of the PM’s Youth Programme and handing over a budget of Rs100bn to the project.  Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s team could not be reached for comment.