Maryam slams PM Imran for calling Hazara mourners 'blackmailers'

KARACHI:

Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday for telling Hazara community mourners he won’t be blackmailed into visiting Quetta.

PM Imran, earlier in the day, said that he will not be blackmailed into coming to Quetta and would visit the mourners, including women and children, sitting along with bodies of 11 labourers in extreme weather conditions near the Western Bypass area close to Hazara Town, only when they bury the dead.

The prime minister was of the view that making the burial of Machh incident conditional to his visit was not right, adding that no one blackmails a sitting prime minister like this anywhere in the world.

“If this condition is accepted then everyone will blackmail the prime minister,” the premier said, adding that a gang of robbers – the opposition parties – is also trying to blackmail him for the last two-and-a-half years.

Addressing a press conference at senior PML-N leader Miftah Ismail’s residence in Karachi, Maryam said she had “never seen such a display of ignorance and ego in my entire life”.

She went on to show pictures of children sitting with placards, and asked the premier if he thought they were ‘blackmailers’.

The PML-N leader said the premier had stunned the entire nation with his remarks, asking if he would think the same way had it been his family.

She said it was the prime minister who had associated a condition to the burials, and not the mourners.

“Isn’t their [Hazara coalminer] life worth anything?” she asked. “If there was a security threat then you should have thought a hundred times before getting ‘selected’,” the PML-N leader stated referring to the reason given by the interior minister’s regarding PM Imran’s visit.

“We also had a security threat, but we still visited,” she said, adding that “If ego had a face it would be of Imran Khan’s.”

“Then you say the army knows everything,” she said. “Do they know that you are a coward? Do they know that your incompetence has cost them dearly? Do your ‘selectors’ know, that you have ruined the economy and the foreign policy?” the PML-N leader questioned.

“I want to ask your ‘selectors’ why did they impose a person like you on this country?” she said.

Also Read: No decision yet on PM’s visit to Quetta

A day earlier in Quetta, she shared similar sentiments while condoling with the family members of the 11 slain coal miners.

Maryam used the occasion to mount another verbal attack on political arch-nemesis Imran. “Does your shamelessness have any limits?” she said, directly addressing the prime minister.

“All they are asking for is that you come here and condole with the bereaved families and pray for the departed souls. Is your ego bigger than those whose coffins are lying here,” she said.

Condoling with the bereaved families, Maryam said she could not even imagine what they must be going through. “Only the one who suffers the loss can really understand what it feels like to be in such a situation.”

“You are a parent yourself. Try to put yourself in their shoes for a moment and feel their pain. For God’s sake have some mercy on these people,” the PML-N leader said, while addressing PM Imran.

Maryam said she had been informed by the mourners that they would not bury their dead if the prime minister does not show up – no matter how long it takes. “If you do not come and condole with them, then people won’t let you sit in Islamabad,” she said.