Imran Khan turned PM House into blackmailing den: Maryam Nawaz

SHEIKHUPURA: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Vice President Maryam Nawaz alleged on Friday that former premier Imran Khan turned the PM House into a blackmailing den and used videos recorded by Tayyaba Gul to blackmail the-then chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to lodge cases against his political opponents.

Addressing a rally for by-election in PP-170 Sheikhupura, she referred to the explosive testimony before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by Tayyaba Gul, whose husband had also been arrested. Gul had first approached NAB chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal and then ex-premier Imran Khan for justice.

Maryam said in her speech that when he took power, Imran had promised to turn the PM House into a university. Instead, he turned it into a blackmailing den, she alleged. “Imran used the videos to blackmail NAB chief to lodge cases against his political opponents,” Maryam said, noting that the number of cases against the PMLN leaders increased exponentially after that.

The PMLN senior leader said though Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ruled Punjab for nearly four years, he could not name even four projects that he built in the province for the benefit of public. “Did Imran Khan complete even one project in Sheikhupura in the past four years?”

She noted that inflation and rising fuel prices were a major concern for the public, but claimed that it was all because of the agreements Imran Khan signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “People also know who helped steer the country out of crises time and again that is Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif,” she said, adding that the party would once again take the country out of the difficult situation.

Maryam also criticised Imran Khan for going to court against Hamza Shehbaz’s Roshan Gharana initiative, noting that instead of replication of the model in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and giving relief to people there, he moved the court to deprive people of Punjab of the great facility. “Why should people of Punjab vote for you?” she asked, before answering herself that Imran wanted to appoint his wife and her best friend as the chief minister of Punjab to loot the province’s resources.

She pledged that the PMLN government would provide a free electricity package of 100 units again to the Punjab people after the by-elections on July 17.