Maryam throws down the gauntlet: ‘Come arrest me if you’ve got courage’

“Don’t blackmail me through my family and people around me. Come arrest me if you have courage,” PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz threw down the gauntlet on Monday while reacting to the arrest of her husband Captain (retd) Safdar in Karachi.

“Come arrest me, so the world could see your ugly face, though they are already seeing it today,” Maryam told a presser where she was flanked by leaders of other component parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – including Maulana Fazlur Rehman of JUI-F and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf of PPP.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was, however, conspicuous by his absence from the “important presser” which was arranged on an emergency basis to give a formal reaction from the PDM platform to Capt Safdar’s arrest.

Interestingly, Safdar, who was taken into custody for alleged hooliganism at Mazar-e-Quaid, was set free by a court on bail while the presser was ongoing.

“I also want to reveal here that Capt Safdar has been receiving death threats for some time now. And these threats are coming from a very high level,” she claimed. “If they believe threats could coerce Nawaz Sharif or Maryam Nawaz into silence; if they believe this could create rifts in the PDM or undermine its unity, then they are mistaken.”

There is a lot more to it than meets the eye, Maryam said of the whole arrest episode.

“Times have changed! Now, these ‘naa-maloom afraad’ (unknown people) are known to everyone. The ‘aliens from space’ have been unmasked after they became ‘denizens of earth’,” Maryam said while using the political neologism coined by non-conformist politicians to refer to the powers that be.

She also reminded the media that former military ruler Pervez Musharraf had also started committing such blunders in panic towards the twilight of his rule. “When you are blinded by power; when you’re driven by power; when you stop using your mind; then you start making such mistakes,” she added.

She said the arrest of Capt Safdar would only lend popularity boost to Nawaz Sharif’s narrative who says ‘there is a state above the state, and a government above the government in Pakistan’. “Nawaz Sharif stands vindicated today,” she added.

Maryam said Capt Safdar’s arrest in Karachi was a conspiracy to dent the anti-government alliance, PDM. However, she added that not even for a second the thought crossed her mind that the PPP could be behind this.

“Bilawal [Bhutto Zardari] called me. He was angry and he said he was embarrassed that something like this happened to his guest and sister [Maryam],” she revealed, adding that the chief minister also called her to express his disappointment and embarrassment.

She also defended her husband’s conduct at the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam which triggered his arrest. “What’s wrong with repeating the Quaid-i-Azam’s narrative and his sayings at his mausoleum? No one chanted slogans for Nawaz Sharif or Maryam Nawaz there.”

Without naming anyone, she said the same powers were scared of the ‘vote-ko-izzat-dau’ narrative that have always stolen people’s mandate. “They are the same powers that have always tried to demonise elected representatives of people – from Mother of the Nation Fatima Jinnah to Nawaz Sharif – as traitors,” she added.

Sharif’s daughter claimed that the complainant in the case against Safdar had a criminal record and that he had been declared proclaimed offender by an anti-terrorism court. “I wonder why complainants in sedition cases always have a similar tainted past,” she added.

Sitting next to her, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also denounced Capt Safdar’s arrest, alleging that Rangers troops had stormed into the hotel room where he was staying with his wife.

“The manner in which he was arrested is not only condemnable but also shameful. As a nation, our heads should hang in shame,” the cleric said. “Does this happen in civilised societies? How can we tell the world that we are a civilised nation!”

The provincial government has already given its stance that the chief minister was kept unaware of the arrest. “When the inspector general of police refused to act against him (Safdar), he was kidnapped and kept in an office of the powers that be for four hours where he was forced to order registration of FIR,” the Maulana alleged.

“If a power doesn’t submit to the law and the Constitution, then it’s called blackguardism. And whatever happened today is sheer blackguardism,” he said while adding that opposition politicians were staging protests within the ambit of law and the Constitution. “The growing turnout in PDM rallies has panicked the rulers – and this shows their days in power are numbered,” he said.

Raja Perviaz Ashraf condemned Capt Safdar’s arrest on behalf of the Sindh government and the PPP. He added that the entire PPP, including Asif Ali Zardari, were pained by the raid on the hotel room where Capt Safdar was staying with his wife Maryam Nawaz as it “violates our traditions”.

He reiterated that the provincial government did not have the knowledge of this episode as it had been kept unaware. “Our chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has ordered the chief minister to investigate this unfortunate incident. And we assure that the findings of the investigation would be brought before the nation,” he said, adding that the PPP would give a formal reaction after the investigation.

Posted by PML(N) on Monday, October 19, 2020