GUJRAT: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz has called for resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Addressing a rally on Jail Road in Mandi Bahauddin late on Sunday night, she said “give your [Mr Khan] resignation; go home”, and urged the crowd to chant slogans along with her.

She claimed Allah had helped Nawaz Sharif in proving himself innocent through a leaked video of accountability court judge Arshad Malik who had convicted the former prime minister. She congratulated the PML-N workers on their leader being “proven innocent of all the charges”.

She said that keeping Mr Sharif in jail would be a crime now, alleging that his sentencing had been “given under immense pressure”.

The PML-N leader said Mr Sharif’s only crime was that he had committed no crime but had called for the respect of votes for which her party would continue to strive.

Earlier, Maryam Nawaz was given a rousing welcome by a large number of party workers on the Motorway and other points on way to Mandi Bahauddin.

Multiple receptions at different points on the way delayed her convoy’s arrival in Mandi Bahauddin where the party’s local leadership and workers had been waiting for her on Jail Road since 6pm.

The local PML-N leadership had earlier changed the venue of the public meeting from Quaid-i-Azam ground to Jail Road after the local administration refused to grant permission for the rally at the ground which was sealed on Saturday.

In a message to the party workers in Mandi Bahauddin prior to her departure from Lahore, Maryam said she would meet them, “whether at a ground or a road”. She said she would reach there “despite all the hindrances created by the government”.

The party workers in the convoy reportedly misbehaved with the staff at the toll plaza. Motorway police said security staff and other officials at the toll plaza let the vehicles go to avoid any untoward situation as the PML-N workers, who tried to create a scene at the toll plaza, were being identified through close circuit cameras, whereas some 80 vehicles had also been identified.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2019