Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Friday said her party would “bury” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) politically in the upcoming by-elections in Punjab, and accused the former ruling party of economic mismanagement and bad governance.
“People know who is responsible for inflation… he (Imran Khan) did not build even a single development project during his four years in power,” Maryam said while addressing an election rally in PP-140 constituency of Sheikhupura.
Her rally was part of the campaign for upcoming by-elections scheduled for July 17 on 20 Punjab Assembly seats. She that Punjab still stood by the “lion” – the election symbol of the PML-N. She said that considering the “love the city has given me in spite of this heat, I could not control myself from going to the people”. “Seeing the spirit here, it seems the lion is coming back on July 17.”
Speaking about the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision to suspend the Punjab government’s free electricity scheme for lifeline consumers, Maryam said Imran approached the court and halted the scheme due to “enmity against Punjab”.
“People would get relief but this man has approached the court to stop it from happening… we will provide free electricity to people consuming less than 100 units after July 17.”
She said that amidst a slump in global oil prices, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would soon announce a major relief package for inflation-hit masses.
“Shehbaz Sharif did not only reduce flour prices for Punjab but for the entire country, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, because this is not politics but a service to the people,” she added.
“People will bury PTI’s politics in Punjab by-polls as they know who is responsible for inflation,” she said, adding, “The PML-N will lift people out of problems and soon steer the country out of crises.”
She went on to say that the country witnessed inflation, including rise in fuel prices, due to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was signed during the tenure of the PTI. She said no matter how big the problem was the PML-N, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, would take the country out of the crises.
She said that whether Nawaz Sharif was in jail or in London, the masses would not stop loving him. “We will not disappoint the people and will take the country out of problems once again,” she said.
Maryam also said Imran had promised to turn the PM House into a university but instead it was turned into a “hub of blackmailing”.
The ruling party leader, while speaking about the former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman’s scandal, said Tayyaba Gull had approached then prime minister Imran to get justice. “But instead of providing her justice, she was forcefully kept in the PM House and Imran took videos from her to blackmail the NAB chairman.”
Gull has alleged that NAB officials stripped her naked, made videos and filed cases when she refused to comply with then NAB chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal’s “demands”. Maryam said the NAB closed all cases against the PTI leaders and stepped up investigations against PML-N leaders after former PM Imran “blackmailed” the then NAB chairman.
