Cabal of five responsible for current situation: Maryam

SARGODHA: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Senior Vice-President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz said on Thursday the “cabal of five” was responsible for the current situation in the country.

“The five people visible on the screen are responsible for Pakistan’s current situation”, which included two incumbent SC judges, she spoke as the photographs of those five people ran on a screen behind her.

Maryam added that former spymaster Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed was their “leader”, as he wanted to become the army chief.

“Faiz Hameed wanted to become the chief. He needed a political face,” she claimed. The politician reiterated that the traces of Faiz Hameed still exist.

“Faiz Hameed does not love Imran Khan. There is fear of the crimes they have committed in the last five years. He made billions of rupees and transferred them to the Gulf countries,” she said, adding that while Nawaz was the people’s representative, the former spy chief chose the “watch-stealer” Khan.

Maryam Nawaz said Imran Khan was used by conspirators against Nawaz Sharif and the PMLN supremo was punished through false cases. She said that Imran Khan keeps saying that his government was toppled through a conspiracy, but the real conspiracy was hatched against Nawaz Sharif.

Without giving any names, she asked: “Does the dam waley baba know where Pakistan stands today? Do Baba Rehmatay and Khosa Sahib know where the country is heading today?”

In 2017 in the Panama Papers case, former CJP Khosa headed a five-member Supreme Court bench that disqualified the then-prime minister and PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif.

Maryam Nawaz also called upon the higher judiciary to assess its “basic responsibility” before evaluating the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on holding the general election in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“You sat down to evaluate the election commission’s responsibility. Definitely examine it, but have you ever assessed your own basic responsibility?” the politician asked.

Maryam’s demand came a day after Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial took a suo motu notice of an apparent delay in polls and formed a larger bench — headed by himself — to hear the case.

The bench was formed two days after President Dr Arif Alvi fixed April 9 as the date for elections to the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KP — the move condemned by the government as “unconstitutional and illegal”.

Taking a jibe at PTI’s ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ (court arrest drive), Maryam said: “Those in the jail are missing their parents and children in one night. She said only 60 to 70 people got themselves arrested in Lahore, a city of 15 million people. “Those chanting for ‘Jail Bharo’ campaign until yesterday (Wednesday) are now asking to be freed.”

She added that Imran Khan is going into “history’s dustbin” and criticised him for not showing the leadership qualities which her father Nawaz Sharif possessed. “Prisons for workers and bails for himself,” she said while joking about the PTI chief being afraid of going to jail and also avoiding courts.

Mocking former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi for joining the PTI and reminding him about his comments on former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for being a Khan apologist, the PMLN stalwart said: “Today, Parvez Elahi has taken the responsibility of changing nappies.”

She also censured his son Moonis Elahi for doing nothing but making money all his life.

Maryam Nawaz said the PMLN was not afraid of elections. They were preparing for it and the PMLN would come to power with a huge majority.

Earlier, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told the convention participants that PTI Chairman Imran Khan wanted to use his party workers for his nefarious designs. He said Imran Khan wanted to hold the whole country hostage again, but the government would not allow him this time.