Maryam terms PTI’s predicament self-inflicted

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz on Friday asked the youth of the country to decide in the forthcoming general elections whether they wanted employments or petrol bombs in their hands.

Addressing an election rally at the Railway Ground in Khanewal, Maryam said that PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif never believed in politics of revenge and that he did not target the state for the injustices meted out to him.

She rejected the allegations of vendetta against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), suggesting that the PTI itself brought the predicament the party was facing. “Was it our party that had called for attacks on the state [institutions] on May 9,” she asked.

Read more: Maryam vows to end inflation, restart uplift work

"Those who are hurling allegations of revenge and lack of level-playing field at us, should tell us, was it Nawaz Sharif who told you to wave the cipher,” she added, referring to a piece of paper that PTI founder Imran Khan had waved at a public rally on March 27, 2022, ahead of a vote of confidence that he lost.

She asked further as to who told the PTI to launch May 9 attacks and assault on the police to resist his arrest in Lahore or hold fake intra-party elections.

“Tell me, had Nawaz Sharif told you to attack the memorials of the martyrs.”

She credited former prime minister Nawaz for initiating development projects all over the country.

“The narrative of Nawaz Sharif is the projects that he launched from Karachi to Khyber. Nawaz Sharif does not want government just for power, but he wants to make food, gas, and electricity cheaper.”

Also read: Maryam kicks off PML-N election drive with Imran in crosshairs

Addressing concerns about rising inflation, Maryam dismissed the notion that the current economic hardships had deterred the support for the PML-N, adding that there was no political party in a position to challenge the PML-N in the political arena at the moment.

She recounted that she had faced arrest, learned of her mother's death in jail, and spent years in jail.

“Ups and downs are part of politics, but true leaders and political workers never back down rather they remain firm on the front lines,” she added. “Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz never left the field.”

On this occasion, senior PML-N leaders Marriyum Aurangzeb, Saad Khurshid Kanju, Azma Bukhari, Haji Irfan Khan Daha, Ghulam Shabir Saqi, Sheikh Fateh Ali, Sheikh Akmal, Ghazala Shaheen, as well as party candidate from various constituencies, including Muhammad Khan Daha, Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir, Rana Saleem Hanif, Haji Ataur Rehman, Chaudhry Ziaur Rehman, Makhdoom Mukhtar, Rana Irfan Mehmood, Pir Aslam Bodla, Amir Rahyat Hiraj, Rana Babar Hussain, Haji Attaur Rehman and others were present.