Pakistan

Maryam Nawaz defends Ayaz Sadiq's controversial Indian pilot remarks

We would be forced to ask questions if this discrimination continues, says PML-N leader

Our Correspondent November 01, 2020

PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz says they would be forced to ask question if discrimination between political parties continues. SCREENGRAB

KARACHI:

Defending recently issued controversial remarks of PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq on the assembly floor, party's vice-president Maryam Nawaz on Sunday said that the statement was not directed towards the armed forces but by conducting a press conference, it was being portrayed as if it was.

Sadiq, a senior PML-N leader, had claimed last month that captured Indian pilot Abhinandan had been released because the PTI “government feared an attack from India”.

Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was arrested after his MiG-21 Bison was shot down by Pakistani jets in a dogfight after it crossed the Line of Control in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on February 29, 2019. However, the government released him 60 hours after his arrest as a “gesture of peace”.

Sadiq’s “revelation” during his speech in parliament immediately went viral on social media in India with their TV channels flashing it to mock the Pakistani military. Alarmed by what he called “misreporting and misquoting” by Indian media, Sadiq had to issue a video message to clarify what he claim to have said on the floor of National Assembly.

Maryam, in today’s address, strongly criticised DG ISPR Maj-Gen Babar Iftikhar for not holding a similar presser over equally controversial statement of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside local media and other politicians had twisted Chaudhry’s remarks as admission by Pakistan over its role in the 2019 Pulwama attack, which killed over 40 troops in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

محترمہ مریم نواز شریف صاحبہ کی شیر جوان موؤمنٹ کی تقریب میں آمد
Posted by PML(N) on Sunday, November 1, 2020

"I truly believe that DG ISPR is a professional soldier and spokesperson of our armed forces but he must be very careful," Maryam said while addressing the opening ceremony of her party's "Sher Jawan Movement" in Lahore. "We would be forced to ask questions if this discrimination continues," she maintained.

The DG ISPR had dismissed Ayaz's statement as nothing more than an “attempt to distort history”.

Maryam claimed that Imran Khan and his government benefitted from dragging institutions into politics as it suited them but it did not suit institutions to look like they're inclined towards just one political party. "They're as much our as they're theirs. This policy must be reconsidered," she added.

The PML-N leader said this discrimination must stop as it sets a wrong precedent and increases the gap between the armed forces and public. "People are not forced to say that the allegations being hurled towards you are true."

"Why did you [DG ISPR] directed it towards our armed forces by conducting a press conference? We're not talking about you, we're talking about this illegal government," Maryam explained.

The PML-N vice-president said that the statement of the federal minister with regards to Pulwama attack was not only being misused by the Indian media but also their prime minister was presenting it as a charge sheet against Pakistan.

Backing the recent statements of PML-N supreme leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam urged the masses not to support her or her father "if any demand of Nawaz Sharif was against the Constitution".

"Read the Constitution and tell me if he (Nawaz Sharif) is saying anything unconstitutional. Nawaz Sharif is only talking about the supremacy of the constitution and independence of the judiciary," she said and added that if demanding rights was treason then all 210 million citizens of this country were traitors.

Maryam said that Pakistan did not get independence to get rid of slavery of one and get into the slavery of another.

"When a police chief of a province is abducted, and detained for several hours and asked to arrest Captain (retd) Safdar [her husband]... then this is nothing but slavery," she said. "And when he refuses, he's been told that he will not be released until he signs the arrest warrants," she added.

"Tell me if the police's uniform is any less? Are they not human? Did we get independence to become a slave of someone else?" she questioned.