LAHORE: A day after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Yousaf Raza Gillani was declared as opposition leader in the Senate, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz criticised PPP over “sacrificing” the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an anti-government alliance, for a “minor, inconsequential post”.
Maryam made the criticism while speaking to the media outside the Lahore High Court, where she had gone to submit her bail bond of Rs1 million in a case pertaining to alleged illegal acquisition of land in Jati Umra. She is on interim bail till April 12 in the case.
She, in a reference to her father and deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said on one side of the line were those who sacrificed their health to protect the people’s right to rule and on the other side were those who sacrificed their principles for the smallest of gains.
مجھے بڑی خوشی ہے اگر انہوں نے یہ لکیر کھینچ دی ہے کہ یہ بیانیہ مریم نواز کا بیانیہ ہے اور جو مریم نواز کا بیانیہ ہے وہ پوری قوم کے اوپر عیاں ہے وہ نوازشریف اور جمہوریت کا بیانیہ ہےآئین کا بیانیہ ہے مجھے خوشی ہے کہ صف بندی ہوگئی ہے@MaryamNSharif pic.twitter.com/HFAX66gozj
— PML(N) (@pmln_org) March 27, 2021
“I am glad that this line [between PML-N and the PPP] has been drawn and that everyone recognises who is standing on whose side,” she said.
At a press conference prior to the election, Maryam had said her party representative Azam Nazir Tarar would be the leader of the opposition in Senate as it was decided “in principle” at the PDM huddle ahead of elections for chairman and deputy chairman slots.
But on Saturday, when asked about the alliance’s future course of action, Maryam said she would wait for PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rahman to make public his position on the matter of Gillani’s election.
“But, I deeply regret the fact that despite understanding the gravity of the situation […] you [PPP] have dealt a massive blow to democracy, our [PDM’s] cause, and the public’s struggle for their right to rule for a minor and inconsequential office. If you [PPP] really wanted the office of the opposition leader, you could have asked Nawaz Sharif for it,” she said.
“Nawaz Sharif gave you all 83 of PML-N votes to elect Yousaf Raza Gillani [on a technocrat seat from Islamabad]. If he can also give you all 17 of his senators for the chairman’s election, he [Sharif] would have given this to you as well if you had just asked him for it. What good is it [the post] any way? It’s not like PML-N could have formed a government if it had won the post. This is a very meaningless, very transitionary victory [for the PPP]. I regret that for this petty victory, you have taken votes from BAP [Balochistan Awami Party].”
The damage has been done to you [PPP], she said, and added people are watching which party is standing where and who is continuing to struggle for supremacy of the democracy.
“This defeat is not of PDM’s, of which the PML-N remains a part. It is the defeat of the people who sacrificed their principles for an inconsequential office. Instead you took votes from BAP? The same BAP that doesn’t side with anyone without its patrons’ orders?”
Maryam also claimed PML-N candidate for the post, Tarar, had received a phone call from Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, who she said offered him the support of “three or four senators of BAP party”.
“He [Tarar] told him that his votes are not required. He stands with his party and his party has a narrative that he will not betray. He cannot betray the PDM,” she said.
“If you feel that the public will not know [what you’ve done] if you call them [BAP senators] ‘independents’, then I think you’re only fooling yourself,” she said, referring to a press conference a day earlier in which Gillani had explained his party’s rationale and reasons for securing the post.
PML-N HAD REJECTED PPP’S PROPOSAL OF CHANGE IN PUNJAB:
Maryam revealed that PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari had presented a proposal, purportedly backed by the establishment, of change of government in Punjab.
She said the PPP co-chairman had “made this proposal inside the PDM that if PML-N wants, then we [PPP], because selectors also want this, want a [change of government] in Punjab”.
“They said they can bring a change in Punjab though a vote of no confidence [against the Punjab chief minister] and make Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi or someone else the chief minister,” she said.
She further revealed that Nawaz had rejected the proposal and answered that he would not sacrifice his principles or work together with the “selectors” to attain political power.
