ISLAMABAD: PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said that although “selectors” have left Imran Khan, the PTI chairman is still looking for their help to regain power.

Making a jibe at former chief justice Saqib Nisar, she said the then CJP had issued a “certificate” of being “truthful and sagacious” to Imran Khan, but today scandals of corruption allegedly committed by the PTI chairman and his misuse of authority were coming to the fore.

“The committee that selected you (Imran Khan) in 2018 has broken. Selectors have not only gone home, but they are regretting their decision to bring you to power,” Maryam Nawaz said at a party’s workers convention here on Saturday.

Referring to a recent statement of Qamar Javed Bajwa in which the former army chief said Imran Khan had become a “threat” to the country, she said: “They [her party] have been saying this for the last three years but no one believed it.”

Without naming the former chief justice, she said “Baba Rehmat” had proved himself as “Baba Zahmat (symbol of trouble)”.

Says PTI, not PML-N, afraid of elections

She said the ex-CJP had declared Imran Khan a pious man but later he was found involved in various corruption cases.

“Use as many as plasters as you [Imran] can on your leg, you have to be held accountable for your corruption in the Toshakhana gift selling case, foreign funding case, for not declaring your daughter in the nomination papers and for diamond rings that the former first lady took as kickbacks and commission,” she said.

Commenting on the economic crisis, she said those who ruled the country for four years were responsible for the problems being faced by people today.

Ms Nawaz blamed Imran Khan for skyrocketing inflation in the country due to his agreement with the IMF. “Imran Khan is hiding in Zaman Park after mortgaging the country with IMF,” she added.

“On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif had also inked an agreement with IMF but did not raise prices. The wheat flour was available at Rs35 per kg during his [Nawaz’s] entire tenure whereas GDP growth was over 6 per cent as compared to negative growth during Imran’s regime,” she claimed.

Nawaz Sharif, she said, was called back whenever the country was plunged into crisis by incompetent rulers.

She asked people to imagine the economic destruction if Imran Khan was brought to power again.

The PML-N leader claimed that household expenses of Imran Khan were being borne by someone else as he had no source of income. “Imran will have to answer for his long tale of corruption and corrupt practices.”

She said PML-N was not afraid of elections rather those who were “selected” in 2018 were fearful of elections due to selectors’ disinterest.

Maryam Nawaz directed the party workers to gear up preparations for a clean sweep in upcoming elections. “We will have to win the upcoming elections in Islamabad,” she added.

“Selected people are afraid of elections, and not PML-N. We are ready for elections. PTI’s tenure, which was filled with lies and conspiracies, is now over,” she declared.

The PML-N, she said, had served people by giving laptops and scholarships to the youth and by bringing 22 hour-long loadshedding to zero level and it would continue serving the masses.

She said that incomplete and abandoned development projects of PTI regime were swiftly completed under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2023