Maryam’s silence gives rise to speculations

Beside mental stress, PML-N leader has severe pain in the neck: Azma Bukhari

LAHORE: While anyone and everyone in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has an opinion on the ongoing political issues, some of its erstwhile vocal leaders maintain conspicuous silence for reasons best known to them.

One such leader is Maryam Safdar, PML-N Vice President and political heir apparent to the party’s supremo Nawaz Sharif. At one point, she was the face of PML-N and her Twitter handle had become the media’s go-to for updates on the party.

However, of late she has gone silent, providing grist to the rumour mill about some sort of deal between the PML-N and the powers that be.

Maryam, arrested on August 8 in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, was granted bail in the first week of November by the Lahore High Court.

Since then, she has been quiet, especially on social media.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Maram has gone silent. Last year, after her sentence in the Avenfield reference, she had kept complete silence.

Initially, the hush was attributed to the death of her mother Kulsoom Nawaz but after the passage of 40 days of mourning period, senior party leaders talked on various political issues.

Earlier in November, a party source had said that it was not in the interest of the Sharif family to start making political statements.

Maryam would continue to maintain her silence until the settlement of matters, the source said without elaborating.

According to a PML-N spokesperson, Maryam is under severe mental stress because of her father’s health condition and has decided to stay away from political hullabaloo – at least for now.

The party spokesperson claimed that when Maryam feels like, she would resume her political activities.