Lowering her angry rhetoric and striking a conciliatory tone, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz has hinted that she is not averse to the idea of negotiating with the “establishment” but removal of the “fake government” would be a prerequisite for such negotiations to take place.
Maryam drew angry rebuke for what critics call an invitation to those who she and her father Nawaz Sharif have been criticising for overstepping their constitutional mandate to topple a democratically elected government.
In an interview with the BBC Urdu, Maryam said her party could consider negotiations with the powerful military through the platform of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a conglomerate of 11 opposition parties leading a campaign against the government. However, there is one condition for negotiations: the “fake government” has to be sent home, she added.
Maryam Nawaz – who is on campaign trail in Gilgit-Baltistan – claimed that the “establishment” had approached some of her close associates for talks, though she hastened to add that nobody had directly contacted her.
Nawaz Sharif, the former premier who has been convicted of financial corruption and sentenced to seven years in jail, openly blames the military brass for his ignominious ouster from power.
“Pakistan Army is my institution. We will definitely talk, but within the ambit of the Constitution. Neither side will try to overstep the crease. Also, such negotiations would be held in public, not in secret,” Maryam said. “I am not against the institution, but this government will have to go home then we move forward [on negotiations]."
Maryam, who is being hailed a political heir apparent to her father Nawaz Sharif, said she was amenable to negotiations with all stakeholders but sought to deflect the question when asked if she would sit across the table with the government.
“People are the biggest stakeholder in this country. Now, we’ll be holding dialogue with the people of Pakistan. And it is happening… it is happening so well that all the forces and the fake government are nervous. And in their panic they don’t know how to react. They are making [silly] mistakes,” she added.
Maryam also sought to quell the impression that the PML-N’s politics has hit a dead end. “I believe those who created this artificial thing have hit the dead end,” she said while referring to the Imran Khan government who her party alleges has been brought into power by the establishment by rigging the 2018 elections.
“Wherever we go, be it Gujranwala, Karachi, Quetta or Gilgit-Baltistan, we find widespread support for our ‘Vote Ko Izzat Dau’ narrative because people do not want a state above the state,” she said borrowing a line from her father who had used it to refer to the military and its spy agency during the first PDM public rally in Gujranwala.
She claimed that her party’s struggle was for rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution in the country.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, with whose PPP Maryam’s party has found a new political romance, has sought to distance himself from Sharif’s tirade against the military brass. In an interview with the BBC, he said he was expecting Sharif would bring evidence to substantiate his allegations against top generals.
Asked about Bilawal’s statement, Maryam claimed that evidence had popped up on its own much before her father hurled the allegations. “The truth is out in the open in the form of Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, Judge Arshad Malik and Dawn Leaks,” she said while referring to two judges who accused the military of meddling in judicial affairs.
“If you don't extend the tenure of a chief [of army staff], then they cook up something based on lies, such as Dawn Leaks,” she said. Dawn Leaks refers to a controversy set off by a news story published by daily Dawn, highlighting alleged confrontation between the civilian government and the military at a meeting in October 2016.
Nonetheless, Maryam sought to give an impression that her party has no issue with Bilawal’s statement. “The Pakistan Peoples Party has its own stance, while the PML-N has its own position which Mian Sahib has made abundantly clear,” she added.
Last month, Maryam’s husband Capt (retd) Safdar was briefly arrested for “violating the sanctity” of Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi in a manner that triggered outrage from opposition parties. The provincial government in Sindh, where the PPP is in power, alleged that the IG police was kidnapped by military officials and forced to order arrest of Safdar.
Subsequently, Bilawal requested the military brass to order an inquiry into the incident. The Court of Inquiry could not establish kidnapping/abduction or use of force against the IGP, but removed the Rangers and ISI officers for “acting rather overzealously in a charged environment”, the ISPR said in a statement.
Bilawal was quick to welcome the ISPR statement, but Nawaz rejected it. “The [ISPR] press release didn’t satisfy the public. Instead it raised more questions,” Maryam said. “‘You are telling the nation that some emotional officers did this in response to public pressure’? “The fake people who filed the case and then the plaintiff ran away. You call the pressure of these three or four persons public pressure!”
She refused to believe the whole truth has been spoken in the press release. “Some junior officers have been made scapegoat which is wrong,” she added.
Maryam ducked the question when asked if an “in-house change” or “minus-Imran formula” would be acceptable to her party or the opposition. “We will see when we get there,” she said without offering a tangible reply.
The PML-N vice-president ruled out negotiations with the government saying it would be a “sin” to negotiate with them even if it is for steering out of crises. “In my opinion, Imran Khan and PTI are not a big issue because I do not consider them political people. My party and I are fighting against the mindset that they represent; they represent everything that must be eradicated from Pakistan.”
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