Those pulling strings can’t keep me from people: Nawaz

LAHORE: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail in a corruption case, have issued audio messages for the people of Pakistan.

Addressing his party workers and leaders in his recorded message, Nawaz said he had been put in jail to keep him away from them. “My daughter, who’s a daughter of the nation, has also been lodged in jail,” he said adding that the opponents did not know that the prison and imprisonment could not sever his relationship with his people.

“Neither any dictator could break off that relationship in the past nor those pulling the strings would be able to do so today,” asserted Nawaz Sharif. He requested the people to pray for recovery of his critically ill wife, whom he left behind, in a London hospital, to return to his country. He said the entire country had been turned into a jail. He said now was the time to stand up and break all shackles. He said the time had reached that people would have to free themselves from the (illegal) restrictions and to do away with the games being played with them for the last 70 years.

He said such games with masses have turned the Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan into a laughing stock. “That’s why I have raised the slogan of ‘Vote Ko Izzat Do’ (Give Respect to Vote. Now it’s your turn to carry this flag (movement) forward.

“Spread my message in every nook and cranny, and inflict a humiliating defeat on those who insult your vote. “Come out of your houses on July 25 for a victory in the election. Give them such a crushing defeat that they are not able to raise their head ever in future. God willing, a great success is awaiting you. May Allah Almighty help you in your mission!”

In a separate audio message, Maryam Nawaz appealed to the people of Pakistan to keep the preparations of upcoming general elections under way, saying, "Raise the worth of the country, raise the worth of your vote."

"Had I not been in a jail, I would have been fighting with you all, and now that I am imprisoned, I am still with you every moment. Your daughter appeals to you to keep the preparation of the elections under way," she added.

On arriving at Lahore's Allama Iqbal Airport from London, Maryam and her father were arrested on Friday. The father-daughter duo was in London to meet Sharif’s ailing wife Begum Kulsoom. "You know I have left my mother in a state of sickness back in London. When I reached London with my father, she was unconscious, and the day we left London for Pakistan, she opened up her eyes for a few seconds, saw us but we could not talk. You understand mother-daughter relationship," Maryam can be heard saying in the audio message.

"Controlling my emotions, I have come here and surrendered to the law of the land. I appeal to you all to pray for my mother's health so that I can see her fit and hug her," she added.

Maryam also said she is not serving the jail term because she has committed a crime but rather because she is the daughter of Nawaz Sharif. "I am not here because I have committed a crime but because I am Nawaz Sharif's daughter. I am a daughter of a brave father. A brave daughter of brave nation. They wanted me to be Nawaz Sharif's weakness, rather I have emerged as his strength," she added.

Sources said apparently the audio messages were recorded in London before their imprisonment, but surfaced on the social media in Pakistan on Saturday and Sunday. Nawaz Sharif was sentenced by a court in Islamabad over the purchase of high-end properties in London. He was awarded 11 years in jail, while his daughter got eight years of imprisonment ahead of the general election in Pakistan on July 25.