PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Thursday said the opposition’s efforts to table a no-trust motion to topple the government was a risk that must be taken.
“People are looking towards the opposition hoping that someone will raise their voice for them. The no-trust motion is a risk that must be taken,” she said while talking to reporters after appearing in the Islamabad High Court in the Avenfield Apartments case.
Maryam said people would hold the opposition responsible if it did not respond to their concerns. She said Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke ill of other countries whenever he visited a country. “He ruined our friendly relations with another country on his way back to Pakistan,” she said.
Maryam said Pakistan stood alone in the international community and even its friends were unwilling to help, says a news report.
“Imran Khan not only destroyed economy, but also the foreign policy. He went to China to for money but he couldn’t get it,” she said and requested him to avoid making foreign visits. She said the premier should be “locked inside a room of the Prime Minister’s House” for now.
Maryam asked all the parties, including the political allies of the ruling party, to step forward for people’s cause because it was a battle between the people and power. Whatever has happened recently has reminded me of the last days of Musharraf regime, Maryam said. “I recall that day when the judges and chief justice were pulled by the hair and dragged on Shahrah-e-Dastoor,” Maryam said referring to Mohsin Baig’s arrest.
“When I look at Imran Khan’s situation, I remember Musharraf’s regime. Mohsin Baig was good in your eyes when he collected Rs1 billion for you but when he criticised the government, you started leaping his walls.”
Maryam said journalists criticised the PML-N’s government in the past but it never targeted anyone. She asked the premier if he was a personality that could not be criticised.
Speaking about the recent hike in the petrol prices, Maryam said the government had increased Rs12 a litre in a single blow.
“The recent price hike is shameful. People are cursing you because they cannot get cheap petrol but Imran Khan is the only prime minister who flies to Banigala from PM’s House in a helicopter at the people’s expense,” Maryam said.
Maryam responded that she was hopeful of the move’s success because Imran was on his last legs. She said the messages sent by her party to disgruntled lawmakers were also applicable to the PML-N itself.
She did not elaborate on who she was referring to as “disgruntled” lawmakers or what messages were sent to them.
“If the opposition does not take a united stand here then we will be blamed for it. It’s ultimately the public that we have to go back to at the time of elections.”
Responding to a question on whether she supported another extension for the army chief, Maryam said “it’s a premature question and we don’t have any details before us”.
Maryam also commented on the recent media reports on the premier’s wife, saying Prime Minister Imran Khan must treat all women even-handedly and set the same standards he wanted for his wife for every woman.
Her remarks come two days after a statement given by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib terming a report published in Friday Times last week that suggested that First Lady Bushra Bibi was currently living at a friend’s place in Lahore after developing differences with PM Imran Khan.
The PML-N leader recalled that she would often face harassment, allegedly from PTI activists, outside her apartment in London. “Whenever I would leave my house to visit my mother at the hospital, some PTI activists who were stationed outside my residence used to hurl expletives at me in front of my son.” Maryam claimed PM Imran used to remain tight-lipped and felt “happy” when someone else’s daughter was being sworn at.
Maryam said the nation would not forget what the prime minister “has done with journalists Asma Shirazi, Gharida Farooqi and Sana Bucha. You must set equal standards for all women and now you must have the courage to tolerate criticism.” She also lashed out at PM Imran for allegedly using the national exchequer to exact revenge on the opponents in the name of accountability.
“The government led by Imran Khan spent its four years in suppressing political rivals and neglecting major public issues, for which he will be held accountable by the people of Pakistan,” she said.
She also took exception to the prime minister for attending an Olympics ceremony in Beijing “at a time when soldiers were being martyred in Balochistan”.
