LAHORE: Rejecting Imran Khan’s claim of having a ‘trump card’ to defeat the opposition’s move to oust him from office, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz offered a word of advice to the prime minister on Firday, asking him to show some ‘self-respect’ and resign instead of seeking time to stay in government.

Addressing party workers at the PML-N’s secretariat in Model Town, she said: “Today, Imran Khan is crying for help not from the public but someone else pleading to come forward and help save his government. But let me tell him… no one will come to his rescue now. He is seeking NRO from everyone…going to his party men and allies whom he never bothered to talk to.”

Asking the PM to stop bluffing people on holding a trump card, she said: “Imran is left with no cards, rather his government’s days are numbered and this is writing on the wall.”

She also castigated Mr Khan for ‘threats’ to his own party members. “Imran is in power, yet over two dozen MNAs have left him. On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif is in opposition but not a single lawmaker parted ways with him despite worst political victimisation by the PTI regime during the past three-and-a-half years,” she claimed.

The PML-N leader said people would not come out in favour of the “selected” premier but would take to the streets against him under the banner of the opposition. She asked the party workers to get ready for the long march towards Islamabad to be kicked off on Saturday (today) from Model Town.

In her speech, Ms Nawaz hurled serious allegations against certain figures close to the prime minister. However, she did not offer anything to substantiate those allegations.

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz also advised Imran Khan to resign if any grace was left in him.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022