Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz said on Thursday that the opposition’s planned no-confidence motion against the government is “a risk that should be taken”.
Talking to reporters after appearing at the Islamabad High Court in the Avenfield Apartments case, Maryam was asked if Shehbaz Sharif would resign as PML-N president if the “no-confidence gamble” failed.
Maryam said that she was hopeful of the move’s success “because Imran is on his last legs and it’s a risk that should be taken”.
Maryam asked all political parties, including the allies of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to step forward for the people’s cause, saying it is a battle between the people and power. 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”.
She lambasted Prime Minister Imran khan over his foreign policy and said that Pakistan stands all alone in the international community. Referring to his China tour, she said that the premier went to China to ask for money and failed to get that as well. She advised the prime minister not to visit foreign countries “as he ruins bilateral ties”.
Regarding the arrest of Islamabad-based media personality Mohsin Baig, she said that this move by the government reminded her of the last days of Musharraf. “Whatever happened recently reminded me of the last days of [former president] Musharaf’s regime. I recall the day when the judges and chief justice were pulled by the hair and dragged on Shahrah-e-Dastoor.”
The opposition leader said that journalists had criticised the PML-N’s government in the past but it never targeted anyone. She also criticized the government over the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products.
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.
Maryam said the premier’s wife was respectable to everyone, stressing that “the standards the prime minister wants for his wife should also have been shown for late Kulsoom Nawaz when she was fighting for her life at a hospital [in London].”
She alleged that some PTI activists had barged into the hospital just to take pictures of an ailing Kulsoom. 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.”
Separately, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) accepted a request by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday, providing a month’s time to the NAB counsel to prepare for the Avenfield case.
During a hearing on pleas filed by Maryam and her husband Muhammad Safdar, a NAB special prosecutor sought four weeks’ time to prepare the case against Maryam and Safdar.
NAB counsel Azhar Siddique said he couldn’t get time to go through the case as the notification for his appointment as the special prosecutor was issued a day ago.
Maryam’s counsel Irfan Qadir said the high court had asked NAB a question and the proceedings wouldn’t take long if NAB submitted the response to that query. Qadir said he wanted NAB to have the opportunity to prepare well for the case.
“We had always wanted to take this case to a logical conclusion at the earliest,” he said, requesting the court to direct NAB for early conclusion of arguments in the case.
The NAB counsel said the case was not just related to two documents, adding that he had a lot to say but wouldn’t say at this point. Qadir said NAB had affixed irrelevant records with its application.
The NAB prosecutor quipped that Maryam’s counsel wanted to give “a sentence to media” by making such remarks. However, the court stopped the counsels from taking jibes at each other.
