Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice-President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz vowed on Sunday to not spare Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for “harming the country.”
Addressing a party workers convention in Multan, she said electricity, gas, food, everything is costly and the government is unhappy about it.
The people of Pakistan knew who has caused this inflation, she said, adding the “watch thief” will not be spared.
Talking about the performance of her party’s previous governments, Maryam said whenever former premier Nawaz Sharif was in power the country saw prosperity. If nine years of Nawaz’s governments were excluded, there will only be despair left to see.
She said Nawaz Sharif provided relief to the people in all sectors, adding the way he did in the part, he will again rid the country of all the ills it faced.
In a reference to the incarceration of Fawad Chaudhry, the PML-N firebrand said the PTI leaders were weeping after spending just two days in jail. Looking at them, she said, she felt proud of her father who spent months behind bars but never shed a tear.
She said a politician did not cry, but stood strong. Taking a jibe at the former ruling party falling out of favor with the military, she said they were doing politics on the crutches of [a retired senior military person] and cannot figure out what to do now after that support has been withdrawn.
Maryam claimed former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had admitted his institution made a “blunder” by supporting PTI chief Imran Khan. However, she said, the admission was not enough; the ex-chief would have to remove this “blot” on politics.
She remarked that Imran was not a blunder, but a “snake” protected by the “group of five”, and now the same snake was biting them.
Commenting on Imran Khan’s “stuff jail” movement, she said the person who kept harping for four years about imprisoning his political opponents should first get his own bails cancelled. Owing to a fear of arrest, he is ‘using’ party workers and women as shields outside his Zaman Park residence, she stressed.
The PML-N stalwart said the party’s “leadership feels the pain of the people who are suffering the brunt of economic challenges”.
“But we all know the reason behind this inflation. The Pakistani nation knows this very well,” Maryam said, censuring the previous Imran Khan-led government without taking any names.
Speaking about the injustices meted out to her family — particularly her father and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif — Maryam said: “Allah and the nation gave the government to Nawaz Sharif thrice. The first time, he was sent home in two-and-a-half years, the second time he was sent home in three years, while the last time he was thrown out of the office within four years [of rule] for not taking a salary from his son. But you all are witness to how Pakistan progressed whenever Nawaz Sharif was in power.”
While talking about the massive rise in inflation, the scion of the Sharif political dynasty said the increase in commodity prices is a result of the agreement that Imran Khan signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during his tenure which he later violated.
“Today, the IMF tells us that we will not listen to you because of the way Imran Khan betray us. They insist on increasing the prices and then paying us the loan money. If we listen to the IMF, then inflation goes up, and if we don’t then Pakistan comes to the brink of default,” she asserted.
