Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to quit over his party’s shameful defeat in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections, mockingly telling him there will be no applicant for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) ticket in the next round of polls, according to a news outlet.
Talking to the media in Islamabad, Maryam said what happened in the KP with the ruling party was quite obvious. She said the PTI suffered a dreadful defeat in KP local government elections.
Maryam said an election ticket of PTI is actually a ticket of humiliation, adding that the PTI-led federal government is the first in the country’s history to lose all by-elections.
She said Imran Khan should resign as no power on earth can support his performance.
Referring to the PTI leaders, she said that they call KP their home but in the next elections, no one will accept PTI ticket and candidates of the party would have to wear a helmet before going into public.
Responding to a question as to who will be nominated as PML-N’s candidate for the slot of prime minister, she said the final decision in this regard will be taken by party supremo Nawaz Sharif. “I will be happy to see Shehbaz Sharif as candidate for [the post of prime minister] but all party members, including Shehbaz, have given mandate to Nawaz Sharif to make final decision,” she added.
Addressing a separate press conference in the federal capital, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Imran Khan was behind the “fabricated story” published against Shehbaz Sharif in Daily Mail back in 2019.
“Selected prime minister [Imran Khan] planted that story against Shehbaz through his ‘tout’ Shehzad Akbar,” she said.
She claimed that Daily Mail reporter David Rose has failed to submit any evidence against Shehbaz before the London court in the defamation law suit filed by the latter.
She said Shehzad Akbar at the behest of Imran Khan levelled corruption allegations against PML-N leaders, adding that the premier also pressured former FIA chief Bashir Memon into filing false cases against the party leadership.
The story appeared in the British newspaper on July 14, 2019 had accused Shehbaz and his family of embezzling millions of pounds out of £500 million aid lent by the Department for International Development (DFID) for 2005 earthquake victims.
