Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that the members of National Assembly (MNAs) who gave their support to Prime Minister Imran Khan in the recent vote of confidence were forced to do so.
The PML-N VP maintained that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers had voted against party lines and in favour of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) joint candidate, Yousuf Raza Gillani, in the Islamabad general Senate seat election, but were then seen “all of a sudden” voting for the prime minister two days later.
“What prompted such a thing, that they changed their decision?” she asked, before answering her own query, saying: “The decision did not change [on its own]. It was forcibly changed.”
Addressing a press conference after a party meeting attended by all senior PML-N leaders, Maryam claimed that government lawmakers were “in touch” with her party and alleged that the agencies had “made people disappear” on behalf of the prime minister ahead of Saturday’s trust vote.
“It has come to our personal knowledge that two MNAs who were not ready to vote for [the prime minister] until the last moment were taken to the compound of an institution in Golra (near Islamabad), kept locked up in a container there for four hours and were forced by personnel of agencies to vote in favour of Imran Khan,” she claimed.
“The entire night you kept a watch on your MNAs with drone cameras,” she alleged.
The PML-N alleged that the prime minister “knows that if he did not do any of this, he would not have won”.
However, the PML-N VP did not identify her source or provide any evidence to back up these bold claims.
Referring to the incident from a day prior where PTI and PML-N members exchanged hot words that escalated to heated blows outside the parliament, Maryam maintained that such disrespect against the party’s senior leaders would not be tolerated by the PML-N.
“You can keep this lecture you like to give us on ethics and morality to yourselves,” she said addressing the government.
“You will have to pay a heavy price for this. If you slap us twice, we will slap you ten times,” she added.
The members of the party that had been caught up in the incident included Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Miftah Ismail, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Khurram Dastagir and Musadik Malik.
Maryam pointed out that the incident took place “in front of cameras” and said there was “great anger” within the party ranks over the matter.
“The political landscape that has developed since the prime minister took his fake trust vote was discussed in great detail, as was the chairman Senate polls,” she said.
The PML-N VP also revealed that the party members during Sunday’s meeting had agreed with consensus to field former finance minister Miftah Ismail as the party’s candidate for the NA-249 Karachi by-election. The seat fell vacant after PTI lawmaker Faisal Vawda resigned from the lower house following his election as a senator.
The opposition parties a day earlier had rejected the parliamentary vote of confidence, which Prime Minister Imran won with a comfortable majority, securing the trust of 178 MPs from members of his own party and his allies in the 342-seat NA.
During the Sukkur press conference yesterday, Maryam had claimed those who had “saved” Imran in the vote of confidence had openly come out in front of the public.
She had said that for her, the decision was taken on March 3 when Yousaf Raza Gillani defeated PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh for a seat in the Senate. The votes the government received, she had further claimed, have no standing since the MPs were forced to vote for the premier.
Maryam had attempted to draw similarities between the PTI campaign and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
