Bilawal Bhutto expected to attend Ayatollah Khamenei's funeral

Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has decided to attend the funeral prayers of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an upcoming visit to Iran, according to party sources.

Sources said Bilawal will travel to Iran alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as part of a high-level Pakistani delegation expected to visit the country from July 3 to July 4.

During the visit, Bilawal is also expected to hold meetings with the Iranian president and other senior Iranian leaders, sources added.

Following his return from Iran, Bilawal is scheduled to visit Gilgit-Baltistan, where he is expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the province's chief minister.

PPP sources said the detailed itinerary for Bilawal's Gilgit-Baltistan visit will be finalized after his return from Iran.

Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, pointed to the issue of infiltration within the Islamic Republic’s sensitive institutions, stating that identifying the location of Ali Khamenei’s meeting would have been impossible without a spy in his inner circle.

“For instance, how do you think they found out that the Supreme Leader had a meeting on such-and-such a day?” Ardestani said. “It is obvious that a spy was right by his ear. These matters must be openly discussed.”

In an interview with KhabarOnline on June 28, amid the revival of the “Counter-Infiltration Bill” in Parliament, Ardestani noted that the plan had previously been reviewed by the National Security Committee, focusing on avenues of infiltration within universities, ministries, administrative offices, and other state institutions.