Being dragged into cases to teach Nawaz a lesson: Maryam

ISLAMABAD: PML-N embattled leader Maryam Nawaz Tuesday said she’d been dragged into corruption cases to teach a lesson to her father.

Addressing a press conference here at the Punjab House, Maryam said she was dragged into the Avenfield reference case owing to "teach a lesson mindset".

Avenfield reference, pertaining to the Sharif family’s London properties, is among three references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last year on the directives of the Supreme Court.

"I figured nowhere in the Supreme Court’s April 20, 2017 judgment; the reason I was dragged into the case finds its origin in ‘will teach a lesson’ mindset that has threatened, harassed and victimised those who refused to accept the excesses, those who had the courage to stand up to injustice and those who have dared to question the rotten, entrenched practice of bringing elected prime ministers to their knees, on one pretext or the other, be it religion, corruption or even ‘ghaddari’," she said while reading out a part of her statement recorded with the accountability court. Maryam said her father had come out to wage ‘Jehad’ for the sake of giving respect to ballot and she would never let him down. “I am strength, not weakness of my father,” she maintained.

Maryam said she had answered 127 questions presented by the accountability court hearing the Avenfield reference. Maryam said her only fault was that she was Nawaz Sharif's daughter and stood the ground with him.

Maryam said she was named in the case to pressurise her father because they were aware of the sensitive relationship between a father and daughter. She said Nawaz Sharif refused to surrender before any hardship, refused to resign when guns were pointed at him, refused the whole world's pressure and made Pakistan a nuclear power and was the one who bravely suffered every atrocity committed by Pervez Musharraf.

She said everybody knew that she was not involved in corrupt practices but despite that she appeared before the court more than 70 times and the case was still going on. "They thought Nawaz would succumb to pressure when his daughter would be dragged to the court. This will never happen, as my father is struggling for the welfare of people and to protect their right to vote and democracy," Maryam said. She said the Capital FZE documents submitted with ‘despicable purposes’ did not concern her.

During court proceedings, Maryam remarked that the letters which were used as evidence against the Sharif family could not be made part of court record. One of the two letters was submitted by the JIT head Wajid Zia on July 3, 2017 and the other by Mossack Fonseca on June 22, 2012.

Referring to the JIT letter, she explained that the way the letter was sent to the JIT was quite suspicious and not according to the law saying there was no truth in the letter which was procured from the private firm. With regard to the Mossack Fonseca letter, Maryam said she was denied the right to cross-examine the witness who had penned down the letter.