LAHORE: PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Thursday admitted the veracity of the recent leaked audio-tape but demanded an apology for her phone being ‘tapped’.
This prompted Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry to respond that Maryam should have tendered apology to the nation and the media for her leaked audio.
Addressing a presser, Maryam while responding to a question pertaining to the leaked audio tape in which she and party leader Pervez Rashid used inappropriate language for certain journalists and anchors, demanded an apology for her phone being tapped.
“It was my personal and private conversation with Pervez Rasheed sahab. Who had the right to tap my personal conversation,” she argued without identifying whom she was referring to.
She further argued why the audio clip was given to a certain television channel and why it was aired.
“I did not do anything,” she again clarified. “It all came from there,” she said without elaborating what she meant by it.
Maryam demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation and action against him and other members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over a report compiled by the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that she claimed confirmed that the PTI received funding from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds and concealed dozens of its bank accounts.
“The PML-N demands and Pakistan’s opposition demands that Imran Khan immediately resigns [as the prime minister] for lying … taking illegal funds and covering this [act],” she said, further demanding action against the premier and PTI over “misdeclaration, [deliberate] concealment and misstatement”.
Moreover, the PML-N vice president said, action should also be taken against four of the PTI’s employees named in the ECP’s report for receiving funds in their personal accounts.
“There should be an investigation on how much amount was transferred from which company to the [PTI’s] accounts and where it was spent,” she said, also demanding that “all declared and undeclared accounts of the PTI should be made public.”
Maryam called for the formation of a joint investigation team on the matter, demanding that the hearings of the case then be held against Prime Minister Imran on a daily basis, “just like they were held over false allegations against Sharifs”.
Lauding the ECP for releasing the report on the matter “despite pressure from the government to not make it public”, she said the commission now must punish the prime minister according to the law.
“Now it is the ECP’s and judiciary’s test, which were very active at the time of the case against Nawaz Sharif,” she remarked. “The nation now wants to see what action these institutions that serve justice take against a person against whom such big allegations have been proved.”
At the outset of her address, Maryam said the ECP’s report contained “shocking” facts and revelations that had “removed the mask” from Prime Minister Imran’s face and exposed him to the nation.
“There is no doubt that such allegations have never been levelled, supported by undeniable evidence, against any political party or leader in Pakistan’s history,” she claimed, slamming the premier for not “addressing these allegations and instead, telling your party to highlight the brand Imran Khan”.
Maryam went on to say that the PTI’s brand was now defined by “inefficiency, inflation, lying and unemployment”.
Sharing the contents of the report, she said according to the State Bank of Pakistan, the PTI had 26 accounts, of which 18 were active.
“Only four of the accounts were declared by the PTI before the Election Commission of Pakistan,” she claimed. “You did not just lie [about the accounts], but also tried to sabotage the investigation [into them].”
