PTI rebel group is much bigger: Maryam

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rebel group is much bigger than what it appears to be.

Addressing a press conference at her Jati Umra residence here on Saturday, she claimed that a large number of Tehreek-e-Insaf MNAs and MPAs were in touch with the PML-N and other parties because they did not want to contest the next elections on the PTI ticket. She said the actual situation would come to the fore once the election schedule was announced.

She said the time was arriving when the elected representatives would have to return to their constituencies and then the PTI parliamentarians would not be able to face the public due to the unprecedented incompetence of the selected government.

To a question by a reporter, Maryam said if Jahangir Tareen group wanted to hold talks with the PML-N at all, it would have to contact Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. She said Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif would hold talks with Jahangir Tareen group if they would approach them for the purpose.

However, she made it clear that “Pakistan Muslim League-N did not need the help of Jahangir Tareen group to bring any change, as the party has enough strength to do it on its own.”

She regretted that people were forced to buy only one kilogram of sugar after standing in long queues and getting an ink mark on their thumbs. She asked whether the resident of Bani Gala was getting sugar in the same way. Did the ministers and selectors get the sugar in same way, she asked.

Maryam Nawaz said the country was witnessing a historical downfall, highest inflation and unprecedented unemployment, which had made lives of people miserable. With such a situation, how a PTI candidate would go to the public and ask for vote in the next elections, she said, adding that the public would grab them from their collars and ask them what they had done to them.

She said she had cancelled her Karachi trip for the safety of the people of NA-249 as well as the residents of Karachi. She said her trip to Karachi was aimed at taking part in the election campaign of PML-N candidate Miftah Ismail. But she cancelled it as it might endanger the lives of the residents due to the recent surge in coronavirus. She said it was not good to gain political mileage at the cost of people’s lives, particularly the residents of NA-249 constituency.

"I have consulted Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif over the visit and they both say we should not put the lives of people at stake," she said adding that she personally wanted to go to Karachi and was very much excited to meet the people of Karachi and to tell them about the manifesto of the PML-N.

Addressing the people of Karachi, she said the PML-N was the only political party which could solve the city problems at all levels.

She said she was in contact with PML-N candidate Miftah Ismail and she knew what kind of problems the residents of NA-249 were facing. She said the biggest problem in the constituency was supply of clean drinking water. She said Insha-Allah after winning the seat, the PML-N would solve that problem as well as other issues of the area.

Answering a question, she said after the Senate elections, she had not been in touch with any other political party. “The PDM is united and standing on its position. The Maulana Sahib [Fazlur Rehman] has called the PDM meeting on April 26, 2021 in which a new strategy will be made and after Eidul-Fitr, the alliance will start its activities,” she added.

“PDM’s future is very bright and it had done very well in its previous jalsas as well as mass contact campaign in which people of Pakistan showed their anti-government sentiments, and since then the government is not stable,” she added.

“Shahbaz Sharif could be the prime minister if he wanted to, but he preferred to stay united with his brother and those who are thinking about cracks in the ML-N will face embarrassment. She said the Sharif family was united and it would remain so,” Maryam said.

Replying to a question about Tosha Khana case, Maryam alleged that when the selected government came to know that the health of Mian Sahib had improved and he was going to start his political campaign from London, and he would address the PDM rallies, they became frightened and contacted the UK government. However, they failed to bring back Mian Sahib because justice was not for sale in the UK. She said after that they declared Mian Nawaz Sharif an absconder in Tosha Khana case.

About plans of demolishing Jati Umra house of Sharifs, Maryam said she wanted to tell the rulers that “everyone has a home, but time keeps changing”. She said there was not a single illegality in the purchase of the land by his grandfather and grandmother; therefore, the government changed the record of Waheeda Begum from whom the land was purchased and the nation knew that how all the revenue officers were detained and forced to change the land record. She said the government didn’t send them a single notice nor demanded them to show the papers because they knew that the Jati Umra papers were legal and flawless.

About rumours that she was going to London for some medical treatment, Maryam said she would not go anywhere even if the government would itself give her the passport and a ticket.

“The change will only come in the country when Imran Khan will go. Changing dirty clothes among each other will not bring a change and the musical chairs they are playing will not bring any change,” Maryam said.

She said she had good relations with Bilawal Bhutto and other PPP members and she never targeted them personally. She further said that PPP was not her target. She said her statement about the PPP, which sought help of BAP in the Senate polls was her point of view because it caused a damage to the PDM and it showed that the opposition was divided.

Earlier, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said Maryam Nawaz's Karachi visit had been postponed due to surging coronavirus cases in the country.