Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Wednesday asserted that the country would soon see “a lot of things change” and that “Nawaz Sharif will return to the country when it is necessary for him to do so”.
The above was said while the PML-N VP was speaking to the media after appearing for a hearing of the Avenfield reference case.
On the occasion, Maryam said that reconciliation was out of the question and lashed out at the incumbent government and described its past three-year performance as “nothing short of “destruction”.
“One should not even hold talks with these people [government],” she said, adding that except for the PTI, all political parties should unite and think about the welfare of Pakistan.
She commented on the Media Regulatory Authority, saying that the government is creating hurdles for the media and Opposition, adding that the bill was a continuation of the incumbent government’s policies aimed at censoring the media.
Maryam said Opposition parties should concentrate on how the government is employing efforts to rig the upcoming elections. She said the government was exacting political revenge in the name of accountability.
Proceedings of the Avenfield Reference against the PML-N vice president and her husband, Captain (r) Safdar, have been postponed till September 8.
On the other hand, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Wednesday said the entire nation wanted to see the ‘corrupt’ leadership of PML-N behind bars for looting national wealth ruthlessly.
In a live telecast from Pakistan Television, the minister lashed out at the PML-N leadership for committing ‘systematic’ corruption during their previous tenures. The only way to eliminate corruption was the accountability process, launched by the present government in the country, he added.
Farrukh criticized the PML-N for their outcry over the accountability, saying it was only aimed to make the entire process controversial.
He asked Maryam Safadr to face accountability courageously instead of seeking adjournments from the court which was hearing her appeal against her conviction in the Avenfield apartment reference.
The minister said so far the case was adjourned ten times, asking Maryam as to why she was reluctant to appear before the court on every hearing.
He asserted that if Maryam assumed herself innocent and had evidence to prove her innocence then she should plead to the court for hearing her case on regular basis.
Farrukh recalled Maryam’s past statement in which she said she did not own any property in Pakistan, as well as, in London.
The nation knew that she was the same woman who ridiculed herself by producing a fake ‘Qatari’ letter in the court as evidence, he added.
He claimed that Maryam was the benefactor of the Avenfield flats in London and had no money trail to submit in the court.
He said the court had restored the conviction of her father Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case, but he, instead of returning to Pakistan, was watching polo matches and strolling Hyde Park in London. Her uncle Shehbaz Sharif was also a corrupt person who laundered national wealth through Telegraphic Transfers.
He said that Maryam, in her media talk, regretted that she was not allowed to go abroad for attending her son’s wedding ceremony. Maryam should tell the people that what was she doing here in Pakistan, if her family lived abroad and had wedding ceremonies and business there, he questioned.
Apparently, he said the PML-N leadership just came to Pakistan to rule and loot the nation as they considered politics as a business activity.
Commenting on the alleged internal rift in the PML-N for the chairmanship of the party, he said both Maryam and her uncle Shehbaz Sharif created confusion in the political landscape.
On the one hand, she called for national reconciliation, while her uncle floated an idea of the national government’s formation, the minister said, adding “The good cop, bad cop policy would not work anymore.”
Farrukh asked Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to pass the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, 2021 pending with the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights for the last three months.
Instead of politicizing the proposed Pakistan Media Development Authority, Bilawal should rather play his role in passing the bill in the NA body headed by him, he added.
He said the present government fully believed in press freedom and was making serious efforts for the development of media and ensuring journalists’ rights protection.
with additional input from APP
