PPP rejoining PDM: I fully endorse Shahid Khaqan’s viewpoint, says Maryam

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Tuesday said she fully endorsed party leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s viewpoint and his objection over inclusion of the PPP into the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) again.

She was talking to the media here on Tuesday after appearing in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), along with her husband Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar, in an appeal against their and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s jail terms.

She said the PPP should not be included in the PDM again without its giving a pretty good reason as to why it ditched the PML-N and other opposition parties on the issue of Senate elections.

She said Khaqan Abbasi was absolutely right that the PPP should reply the show-cause notice and the PML-N stance was not different from that. Maryam ruled out making of any new opposition alliance, saying the PDM was the only opposition alliance. She said no new alliance was in the making, and the PML-N’s position regarding its demand from the PPP to clear its position on Senate election was the same.

Replying to a question as to why she was not invited to the PDM dinner, hosted by her uncle Shahbaz Sharif on Monday, Maryam said Shahbaz gave a dinner in honour of the parliamentary leaders, in his capacity as the opposition leader in the National Assembly. She said since she was not a parliamentarian, hence no invitation to her. She said if Shahbaz was present at some place, there was no need of anybody else to be present there. She rebuked the media persons for posing such questions, asking them to stop raising issues that were in fact non-issues. She chided them that the media had been saying such things for the last 40 years.

Maryam said that they had sufficient numbers in the Punjab Assembly, necessary to topple Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s government in the province. She criticised the government for rising inflation and poverty in the country. She said the PTI government had destroyed the economy and made the lives of people miserable. She hit hard the PTI government for figure-fudging with the economic indicators only to show a false growth rate. She lamented that poverty was on the rise while the government was toying with the numbers.

Replying to a question about Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s rejoining the PML-N after his swearing in, Maryam said he was free to make his own decisions, adding that the PML-N had nothing to do with Ch Nisar. She said why the PML-N should accept him into the party ranks again; what’s his relationship with the party.

To a question that what would be her opinion if Ch Nisar’s name was finalised for the chief ministership, she retorted that she was not aware of such machinations. She asked journalists to put that question to those who were involved in such kinds of intrigues.