If speaking truth is treachery, we’ll do it again and again: Maryam

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N Central Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sunday said if speaking the truth, and talking about supremacy of the Constitution, law and institutions was a treacherous act, then the PMLN would do it again and again.

She was speaking to a public gathering after paying a visit to the party activist Javed Latif's family in Sheikhupura. She reached there along with other party members and spoke to a large number of people.

Maryam also warned the government of "standing in the way of people and their leaders". “Get aside, and let people make their own decisions," she added. Maryam questioned that if the government "is so desirous of labelling people traitorous" why was Gen Pervez Musharraf "secretly sent out of the country overnight?"

"Whoever you are now labelling traitors, history will remember them as heroes," Maryam said. "If you call Javed Latif a traitor, we all are traitors," she said. She said by labelling Javed Latif a traitor, the government had, in fact, labelled the people of Sheikhupura as traitors.

"We have been listening to this word ghaddaar (traitor) for a long time now. Whenever they are afraid of someone, and when they are afraid of the truth, of talk of the law and Constitution, of bravery, the bag opens and there are labels such as traitor [...] or thief," she said.

She said Javed Latif, with his "unwavering stance on what is right and true", had "paid his due being the son of the soil". He was arrested for issuing "anti-state" remarks and his request for pre-arrest bail was rejected by the court.

Maryam said if being declared a traitor was a crime, then the first person to have been declared one was Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah. She said that even her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was declared a traitor and so had she herself been labelled in the past.

"If calling what is right, 'right', what is true, 'true', if speaking of the supremacy of the Constitution and institutions, and of standing by the law, is traitorous, then we will do this treachery again and again," Maryam vowed.

She said that those who had "opened factories to issue fatwas (decrees) of someone being a traitor", must listen up. "When you are afraid, and have lost, and cannot bear to listen to talk of the supremacy of the Constitution, you issue certificates of treachery.

"But I will like to tell them, times have changed. People have stopped becoming afraid. "Today, like Javed Latif, when you know you will speak the truth and be arrested, and you still stick to your guns, there is no greater service to the nation than this act," Maryam added.

Speaking of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam said, "They worked hard to label him as a traitor" but the 220 million people of Pakistan "turned him into a hero instead". She added that although Nawaz Sharif was in London, "from all corners of the country, decisions and victories in his favour are being witnessed".

"The time is near when Javed Latif and Mian Nawaz Sharif will be among us," she added. The PMLN vice president also spoke of the Daska by-election, saying the people took the "respect the vote" [Vote ko izzat do] slogan to heart, guarded their vote, and then snatched it back when it was "stolen" from them.

Maryam said Nawaz Sharif "made huge sacrifices" but the people have now "awakened to the truth", they know what their rights are, what the supremacy of the law and Constitution is, who believes in it and "who the real traitors are".

Maryam said there was a time when people would wait for "traitors in power" to vacate their seats so they could then be labelled as such, "but today they are on the seats of power already and the people are not afraid to call them out".

Asking people who the real traitors are, she said "the real traitor is the one who, while in the US, sold out Kashmir, and pushed it into India's lap". "The traitor is he, who, says the embassies who represent Pakistan throughout the world, are not doing their job right.

"Traitors are those who play with the lives of the people," Maryam said, adding that traitors are those who leave the nation deep in debt, and who mark the people's fingers after allowing them to purchase only one kilogramme of sugar at a time in Ramazan.

Maryam said Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister with the votes of the people. "Nawaz Sharif was not selected; he did not rise to power on anyone's shoulders," she said, adding: "When you use institutions to remove such a leader from power, that is treachery."

The PML-N vice president also counted the use of the Results Transmission System (RTS) in the 2018 elections "to rob people's vote and impose a selected leader on the people" as traitorous.

She said treason is when the media is silenced, threatened and suppressed, and when the judiciary is made controversial. Maryam said "Nawaz Sharif's sun is about to rise again" and "the nation knows that if anyone can get the country out of trouble, it is Nawaz Sharif".

"No one is ready to believe your treason fatwa," Maryam said to the government. PMLN spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb also accompanied Maryam Nawaz during the visit to the residence of Javed Latif. She met Javed Latif's old mother and family and expressed solidarity and good wishes from party the leader Nawaz Sharif and party president Shahbaz Sharif.

She said Javed Latif was a loyal, ideological leader and a valuable asset to Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and the party. “I have come to express solidarity on the special instructions of Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif,” she said.

Marriyum said political opponents and government critics had a long history of treason trials, medals and certificates. “Those who love the homeland and raise their voices for its benefit are always given certificates of patriotism by the people,” she added.

She said everyone knew that the real crime at the moment was to support Nawaz Sharif and say the word of truth in front of a fake vote thief government. “All this is being done by Imran Sahib, whose speeches can lead to hundreds of treason cases,” she said adding in political opposition, the blind rulers had also registered a case of treason against the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.