Party will decide about making Maryam Nawaz PM: minister

KARACHI: Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that politics is being done on the Dawn Leaks issue, adding that a detailed revised notification over Dawn Leaks probe report would be issued either today (Monday) or tomorrow (Tuesday). She said that the party (PML-N) would decide about making Maryam Nawaz Sharif the prime minister of the country.

She stated this on Sunday while addressing here the “Meet the Editors” session of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers’ Editors (CPNE). The state minister informed the audience that a complete notification would be issued in the coming two to three days by the Interior Ministry in Islamabad on the basis of the inquiry report on the Dawn Leaks’ issue and afterwards all uncertainty and ambiguity on this issue would come to an end.

She said that the APNS (All Pakistan Newspapers’ Society) and CPNE would be duly taken into confidence on this matter. She said that ambiguity had been created on undue basis in the Dawn Leaks’ case. She said that PM House didn’t issue any notification, rather it had issued a memorandum of directives for Interior Ministry so that the ministry could issue its final notification in the case of Dawn Leaks’ inquiry, on the basis of these directives.

She said that the PM and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had done consultation on this issue.

She said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family would submit before any level of investigation in the Panama Papers’ case for the sake of trust of the nation. The state minister said that the prime minister and his family would appear before any investigation official, assigned to probe the Panama Papers’ case, irrespective of his grade.

“The prime minister would be answerable wherever he is required to do so,” said Marriyum Aurangzeb. Marriyum Aurangzeb said that everyone had to be held accountable if in case the prime minister and his family were being made accountable for their three generations.

Accountability of all should be done whether for a period of the last three or five years. She claimed that democratic dispensation in the country would be strengthened due to the Panama Leaks’ issue.

The state minister said that the prime minister, in his first address to the nation after the Panama Leaks’ scandal, had made it clear that he was ready to face any joint investigation team if such a JIT was constituted in this case.

Afterwards, the Supreme Court heard this case and the PM faced all the allegations. None of the institutions has called PM a liar, she said. She said that the PM was ready to face accountability since the time of his father. She said that the PM had to face allegations of varying nature.

The state minister said that Nawaz Sharif had become the prime minister of the country for the third time with the grace of God and the trust of people of Pakistan. She said that the opposition for the last one year and 17 days had done politics on the issue of Panama Leaks merely on the basis of hypotheses.

A woman had been unduly linked with an issue of national security, said the state minister while talking about Maryam Nawaz. She said it was the opposition, which did propaganda that Maryam Nawaz would be the next or alternate prime minister of the country though the incumbent PM or the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had taken no such decision.

She said it was up to the leadership of the PML-N to nominate a candidate of the party for premiership of the country after the forthcoming general elections. Similarly, the party leadership would decide the constituency from which Maryam Nawaz could contest the next general election if she decided to venture into politics.

She said that the democratic dispensation would continue in the country as extremist and terrorist tendencies had to be shunned for progress and development of the country.  For this cause, all concerned political parties, people, and communities in the society had to play their due roles.

The outside world has to be informed that Pakistanis are a peace loving nation. The media, while airing news, should keep in mind national security and prestige while promoting a positive image of Pakistan, she said.

She said that Pakistan in the last four years had seen a remarkable decrease in instances of terrorism owing to the steps of the present government and sacrifices rendered by security agencies.