LAHORE: The PPP says arrest of Maryam Nawaz shows that the rulers desire to suppress all voices of dissent.

“The country is fast moving towards fascism and dictatorship as the incumbent rulers are bent upon stifling all dissenting voices,” party’s Punjab president Qamar Zaman Kaira said here on Thursday.

He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) actions and arrests of the opposition leaders were fanning political victimisation and vendetta.

He regretted that dissenting voices were being suppressed at a time when the sworn enemy of the country had launched an attack in the Occupied Kashmir and the rulers were dividing the nation at a time when it needs unity the most.

He asked the ruling PTI to take initiative for framing a joint national strategy on the Kashmir dispute instead of arresting leaders of the rival parties.

He said it’s a pity that the government was out to annihilate the opposition instead of working to provide relief to the masses.

Parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Hassan Murtaza said arresting Maryam Nawaz was in fact admission of defeat by the government. He said the nation was quizzing the prime minister on the Kashmir issue and instead of responding to the masses, he was attacking the opposition.

PTI: Governor Chaudhry Sarwar said the government had nothing to do with the arrest of PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz as it is the sole responsibility of the NAB.

The governor said the NAB was making all arrests following its own decisions to eradicate corruption and added that the government was strengthening every department including the NAB and the FIA. He dispelled the impression of political interference and victimisation of the opposition.

The governor was speaking at a tree plantation campaign, Road Safety Workshop and in a meeting with Special Assistant to Prime Minister Naeemul Haq.

Mr Sarwar said the PTI government was making policies in line with national aspirations to make the country strong. He stressed that India should resolve the Kashmir issue through dialogue and according to the UN resolutions and stop inflicting atrocities on the Kashmiris.

“We have already defeated India on the political, diplomatic and military fronts and in future we will also give India humiliating defeat,” he said.

PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry said the state institutions were for the first time performing their constitutional duties independently and without any political pressure. He said the Sharif family would be required to contest their cases in courts on the basis of evidence.

“Maryam Nawaz should plead her case on the basis of evidence instead of public meetings,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2019