The head of the PTI will serve as “an example”: Maryam, chief organizer for the PML-N, has said that anyone who denigrates martyrs cannot be considered one of us.
PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz lashed out at the former premier on Monday, holding PTI Chairman Imran Khan responsible for the mayhem on May 9. She said that Khan, 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 burns down shrines to the fallen or destroys fighter planes used to shoot down enemy planes cannot be considered one of us. She then added, “They also can’t be Pakistani.”
The senior vice president of the PML-N was holding a rally in the seat of party candidate Mushtaq Minhas in the Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
She addressed the crowd about the PTI leaders’ departure, asking, “Where is the former ruling party?” before saying, “It went back to where it came from.”
While the PTI may have once hoped to bring down the PML-N, the organization is now in shambles. Those who once thought themselves untouchable and pledged to bring others to tears are now left to their own devices to do so in private.
Maryam remarked, “Even their [PTI] own prime minister of AJK is testifying against them” in reference to Sardar Tanveer Ilyas.
Recently, Ilyas proclaimed his intention to “move forward together” with Jahangir Tareen, a sugar baron and former close adviser of the PTI chairman who has since developed differences with him and is planning to start a new party.
Without naming Imran, she claimed that “the person had been hiding in a bunker” (a reference to the PTI chief’s home in Zaman Park Lahore) and promised that he “will be made an example of.”
Maryam said that the PTI chairman had reached an agreement on Kashmir with Trump when he was president.
Listen carefully: the people of Pakistan and Kashmir will never forgive you for your disrespectful behavior on May 9 at the martyrs’ memorials. They will serve as an example for others, she said.
“Who do you think of when you encounter the politics of vandalism and hate?” she probed. According to her, he resorted to such activities [on May 9] since he had nothing positive to show for his time on Earth.
The PML-N leader, referring to events that occurred during his father’s premiership, stated that if the nine years of his father’s rule were removed from the country’s 75-year history, nothing would remain.
Maryam claimed that the PML-N leader was under pressure, adding that he would never stand by and watch the country be harmed.
She argued that nobody could accuse PML-N candidate Minhas of corruption, hence everyone should vote for him.
I implore you to vote for Mushtaq Minhas and the party that pioneered these reforms, she said.
The military and PDM administration declared May 9 a “black day” because of the riots that day. The government responded by launching a huge crackdown against PTI.
Protesters, many of whom are said to be affiliated with the former ruling party, have attacked the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and the mansion of the Lahore corps commander, known as the Jinnah House, in an unprecedented act of vandalism.
Hours earlier, on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau, paramilitary Rangers men had arrested the party chairman in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, which has since been renamed the £190 million National Crime Agency scandal.
As a result of the crackdown, many prominent PTI members have publicly distanced themselves from the party and others have been detained.
Fawad Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari, Imran Ismail, Ali Zaidi, Amir Kiyani, Saifullah Nyazee, Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan, and Musarrat Jamshed Cheema are just some of the prominent PTI leaders who have broken ties with Imran thus far.
As a result of the violence and attacks on military sites on May 9, a number of PTI candidates who had been given tickets for the Punjab Assembly elections resigned from the party.
Several politicians also became more active at the same time in order to take advantage of the shifting political circumstances. Tareen is the most prominent of them.
There have been rumors that many who have left the PTI may join Tareen in his own political party. More than sixty legislators and senior PTI leaders reportedly reached out to him.
