PTI chief to be made ‘an example’: Maryam

BAGH:

Holding PTI Chairman Imran Khan responsible for the May 9 mayhem, PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz on Monday lashed out at the former premier, saying the person who once boasted about invincibility and vowed to “bring tears to other people's eyes” was “now isolated and had been weeping alone”.

"Anyone who disrespects the martyrs, sets their memorials on fire, or sets ablaze the fighter jets that destroy enemy jets cannot be one of us. They cannot be Pakistani either,” she said.

The PML-N senior vice president was addressing a rally in Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) during her mass contact campaign in the constituency of party candidate Mushtaq Minhas.

On the PTI leaders quitting the party, she asked the crowd where the former ruling party was, adding that it “went back to where it came from”.

“They dreamed of disintegrating the PML-N, but today, the PTI itself has fallen into disarray. Those who used to claim they were invincible and vowed to make others cry are now sitting alone and weeping.”

Referring to Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, Maryam said, “Even their [PTI] own prime minister of AJK is testifying against them”.

Ilyas had recently announced to “move forward together” with Jahangir Tareen, a sugar baron as well as a former close aide of PTI chief before they developed differences and was now planning to form a new party.

Without naming Imran, she said, “the person had been hiding in a bunker” – a reference to PTI chief’s Zaman Park Lahore residence – and maintained that he “will be made an example”.

Maryam said the PTI chairman had also struck a deal on Kashmir with former US president Donald Trump.

“Whoever acted in such a manner towards the martyrs and their memorials on May 9, listen carefully, the Pakistani nation and the people of Kashmir will never forgive you. We will make an example of you," she said.

“Who do you remember when you come across the politics of vanadalism and hate,” she asked. When someone had nothing progressive to show, she said, he committed such acts [of May 9].

Citing developments during former premier Nawaz Sharif's tenure, the PML-N leader said if nine years of his father’ tenure were excluded from 75 years of the country, nothing would be found.

Maryam said the PML-N supremo faced troubles, adding that he never allowed anyone to harm the country.

She urged the people to vote for PML-N candidate Minhas and noted that there was no allegation of corruption against him.

“I ask you to vote for Mushtaq Minhas, and for the party that initiated development projects,” she added.

The government launched a massive crackdown against PTI which landed in trouble following the rioting on May 9, a day the country’s military and PDM government termed as “black day”.

In an unprecedented show of vandalism, protestors allegedly belonging to the former ruling party vandalised public and private properties and even attacked the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, and Lahore corps commander’s residence, also known as the Jinnah House.

The attack took place hours after paramilitary Rangers personnel arrested party chairman in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, later retitled as the £190 million National Crime Agency scandal, on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau, from the Islamabad High Court premises.

Following the clampdown, several senior PTI leaders were arrested, and many dissociated themselves from the party.

So far, many senior-most PTI leaders, including Fawad Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari, Imran Ismail, Ali Zaidi, Amir Kiyani, Saifullah Nyazee, Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, have parted their ways with Imran.

Besides a number of candidates, who were awarded PTI tickets for Punjab Assembly elections, quit the party, condemning the May 9 violence and attacks on military installations.

Simultaneously, several politicians also became active to benefit from this realigning of the new political dynamics. The foremost among them is Tareen.

It has been reported that Tareen was forming his own political party amid speculations that those quitting the PTI would join him. It was said that more than 60 lawmakers and top PTI leaders had contacted him.