PTI can fit in Qingqi rickshaw after defections, quips Maryam

MULTAN: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz took a jibe at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) saying the entire opposition party can fit in a Qingqi rickshaw following defections in the wake of May 9 violence.

“Today, he himself is the president, general secretary, chief organiser and spokesperson of the party and the only candidate of his party,” she said while referring to PTI chief Imran Khan.

The ruling party leader made these remarks while addressing the PMLN’s youth convention in Punjab’s Shujabad on Sunday.

Unlike the PTI, Maryam said the PMLN could not be dismantled because “it is the people’s party and not a fake party”.

She said the PTI “which was formed after the hard work of 26 years, disintegrated in 26 minutes”.

Imran Khan is the mastermind of May 9 attacks on defence and civilian installations, but now he is begging for talks and meetings, she said.

She strongly criticised the former prime minister for inciting people for attacking the state institutions, saying the PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif never asked his workers to set fire to state buildings when he was removed from power.

“Nawaz Sharif fought oppression but never encouraged chaos,” Maryam said, adding the PMLN supremo would once again rise to power through the democratic way. On October 12, when the government was taken away from Nawaz Sharif, he was in Shujabad. She said the PMLN government was dissolved again and again, but Nawaz never gave a call for setting any national building on fire. She said a person who built metros, hospitals and schools could never incite people to harm the country. But Imran Khan’s lust for power damaged the country and state institutions, she added.

Maryam said they had even burnt the monuments of martyrs, adding that the people of Pakistan would never forgive the person who attacked the state institutions.

The PMLN senior vice president said youth were the bright future of Pakistan and they should join hands for protection of the country. “This fitna [evil] is buried now. Let’s start a new journey of prosperity,” Maryam said while referring to Imran Khan without uttering his name. “His party has been reduced to the extent that it can be carried in a rickshaw now,” she said sarcastically.

Maryam said the one who used to say that he would make the PMLN leaders cry was now himself crying day and night. The PMLN leader said the party of Nawaz Sharif, after coming to power, would provide jobs to youth, adding that they would not hand them over petrol bombs.

Maryam Nawaz also talked about agricultural reforms and added that she wanted to see Shujabad as developed as was the Lahore city. She wished the youth could have better jobs and health options in Shujabad instead of traveling to Lahore. The PMLN wanted to empower the youth by giving them loans to establish their own businesses.

Maryam said Pakistanis would pledge now that they would not pardon those who set fire to the country. Shehbaz Sharif and Ishaq Dar presented a balanced budget even during difficult times. She said Pakistan is an agricultural country and the government had focus on the sector. She said loans would be given with the help of information technology.

PMLN key leaders, including ex-senator Syed Javed Ali Shah, ex-MNA Ahmed Hassan Dehr, Saad Khurshid Kanju, ex-MNA Sheikh Tariq Rashir and others were also present.