Premeditated?

It looks premeditated. Maryam Nawaz had perhaps realised that her appearance before NAB investigators in Lahore over ‘illegal’ acquisition of land in Raiwind could be turned into a political event. So she took it as an opportunity to show her political strength and to falsify those who believe that the DNA of PML-N workers is void of agitation tendencies. Instead of appearing in her personal capacity, the young PML-N leader led a caravan — featuring hundreds of party workers and supporters in cars and on foot — to the NAB office where heavy police contingents were already deployed.

A face-off was inevitable. The police used tear gas and batons to stop the charged party workers to go beyond a certain point. The PML-N crowd pelted stones at the police who hurled them back from where they had come. It may have been the other way round, as each side blames the other for bringing stones with them. One of the stones hit the wind screen of Maryam’s car and left a very visible scar which — according to Rana Sanaullah, a former law minister of Punjab — came from a laser gun shot. While the scuffle ensured that the NAB appearance of Maryam was deferred, it also resulted in cases lodged against her and other party leaders and workers incitement and violence.

It was Maryam’s first public appearance after about five months — since March 13, 2020 to be exact — when she had visited the residences of senior party leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ahsan Iqbal to felicitate them over their release from jail. Before that she had last spoken on August 8, 2019 — again a gap of six months — when she was arrested in a corruption case concerning Chaudhry Sugar Mills. While there have been clear signs that this silence and submission of PML-N high-ups goes in line with some kind of political understanding with the powers that be, it will be interesting to see if Maryam is going to maintain the defiance she has exhibited during her latest public appearance or will go mute again.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2020.

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