–PML-N VP claims military has reached out to open dialogue
–Junior officers were sacrificed in Karachi incident, claims Maryam
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that the military has reached out to her people to open dialogue and that she willing to do so as long as the talks are held in the public eye.
She said that above during an interview with BBC Urdu, adding that these talks should be held “within the ambit of the Constitution”.
Furthermore, in response to a question on whether she would be willing to hold talks with the current military leadership, which her father, former premier Nawaz Sharif, had lambasted during a Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally, she said, the “possibility of initiation of dialogue from the PDM’s platform could be thought about but after the selected government had been sent home”.
“The army is my institution,” Maryam said, clarifying that while she is not against state institutions, she believes that if the incumbent government needs to be ousted for the country to move forward.
Maryam added that members of the military establishment had contacted “many people around me but nobody has directly contacted me”.
“The dialogue is with the people now,” she said, adding that she was ready to talk to “all stakeholders”.
In response to a question about whether or not she would talk to Prime Minister Imran Khan or members of his government, she said, that the incumbent government is worried and that the real dialogue will take place with the people of Pakistan.
“They are so worried they do not know how to react and they’re making such mistakes in their confusion that the mind is shocked,” she said.
Maryam refused to offer further comments on this “minus-Imran Khan” strategy, insisting that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) needs to be removed to pull Pakistan out of its current crisis.
“I do not even want to take Imran Khan’s name but he represents everything that should not be in this country. So when I talk about the inflation in prices of flour, sugar, gas and electricity, who else can I name but Imran Khan? And the biggest problem of the people is that their vote has been stolen.”
“Whenever the government takes notice of a commodity, its prices shoot up,” she claimed.
She also purported that the “people’s mandate” has been stolen and that there is a dire need for free and fair elections.
“It is time for the incumbent government to be held accountable,” she said, ruling out any possibility of political “understanding” with the PTI, which she claimed was “weakened.”
She added that any alliance with the PTI would be akin to “forgiving” them, which she felt was “not fair”.
Taking another jab at PM Imran, she went on to say that it would be a “sin” to talk with the PTI-led government.
Furthermore, the PML-N VP said that the party was not heading “towards a dead end.”
Instead, she added, the ones going towards a dead-end were those who had tried to make this temporary government.
When asked about the PML-N working with the PTI in regard to granting provincial status to GB, she said, “The people know whose plan this was”.
She claimed that the PTI would not take this matter to the parliament, but that the PML-N would, expressing a hope that the people of GB would support her party during the upcoming elections on November 15.
She claimed that the PML-N “would not only turn the region into a province but also oversee the constitutional amendments”.
Maryam, who is currently campaigning in Gilgit Baltistan, said, “Wherever we are going, whether it be Gujranwala, Karachi, Quetta or Gilgit Baltistan, the only narrative that echoes is to ‘respect the vote’ and ‘not making a state above the state’.”
She claimed that the direction of the PML-N was towards the supremacy of the Constitution and the law.
In addition, Maryam said that it was not the institutions that need to act according to the demands of the public, but the government which needs to follow and uphold the Constitution.
“The job of the institutions is to carry out their professional duties, not to display their emotions,” said Maryam.
This was said in reference to the recent inquiry report of the Karachi incident, which had been rejected by her father, PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz, who has been in London for medical treatment for a year, said the findings of the inquiry into the arrest of Safdar, his son-in-law, were an attempt to “scapegoating juniors and shielding the real culprits”.
“Report ‘Rejected’,” he tweeted from his official handle.
Maryam opined that the report added more questions to the issue, rather than clearing the confusion.
“You are telling the people that some overzealous officers did this under pressure from the public’s reaction. What public reaction was there? Those fake people who registered the case and then ran away, those three, four people are what you call public pressure?” she questioned.
Furthermore, Maryam said she “did not believe that such a thing happened. [Maryam believed that] some junior officers were sacrificed.
“It is very sad,” she commented.
In an interview with the same media outlet last week, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had said that he was “shocked” by the way in which Nawaz had named the leaders of the military institution during the PDM Gujranwala rally.
Bilawal had said that the former premier should not have taken the names of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Jawed Bajwa and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, but added that he would wait for Nawaz to present “evidence”.
In response to this, Maryam during the interview said her father had said the words but the evidence was in front of the public.
She further said that both the parties had their own stance and that the PML-N’s stance had been clarified by Nawaz Sharif.
According to the PPP media cell, the meeting between the two leaders was held at a local hotel in Nagar Khas, during which matters related to the current political scenario were discussed
A second meeting also took place between the leaders of the two parties.
