ISLAMABAD    -    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice-President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz said on Sunday that she was not interested in becoming the prime minister or the chief min­ister after the upcoming general elec­tions in the country.

During an informal interaction with journalists, she categorically said, “My focus is not on the slot of prime minister or chief minister.”

The PML-N stalwart also said for now, Junaid — her son — had also no intention of joining politics. “Junaid has to take the responsibility for his home first,” she said on a lighter note Junaid Safdar, a Cambridge graduate, has two Mas­ter’s and two Bachelor’s de­grees from UK universities. A polo enthusiast got mar­ried in London in August 2021 and celebrated a grand valima ceremony in Decem­ber in Lahore. Maryam said that the foundation, identity and power of her party was “performance”. Responding to a question about people’s response, the PML-N leader said she was surprised to see the enthusiasm and numbers of the people who welcomed her upon her return to the homeland. She was in London since October 2022 and spent time with her father and par­ty supremo Nawaz Sharif be­fore coming back to Pakistan in the last week of January.

“The response was beyond my expectation,” she added. 

Without naming former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chair­man Imran Khan, the scion of the Sharif family’s political dynasty said that the people knew who brought inflation and took the country’s econ­omy to the brink of disaster. 

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s focus is on good gov­ernance.” At the same time, she said the coalition govern­ment could not turn a blind eye to rising inflation.

Responding to a question, she said that PML-N would hold public rallies near the upcoming elections. “The en­tire programme of the Tan­zeemi (organising) Conven­tion was arranged by Nawaz Sharif himself.”

Speaking on the occasion, Maryam said that the PML-N’s social media wing was working on a voluntary ba­sis. “We find it difficult to re­peat even true accusation,” she added.

The PTI, she said, recruit­ed keyboard warriors on the government’s expenditure. She added that their competi­tion was with very rude peo­ple. Maryam also announced that her “party is setting up its own IT wing” to count­er the propaganda of their opponents. Moving towards Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the PML-N leader called him her “elder brother”, saying that he was not angry with the party — as it was well in the debate why Abbasi resigned from the party’s key post soon after Maryam’s election as the par­ty’s senior vice-president and chief organiser’s posts.

Abbasi wanted to bring the youth forward in the party, she added. “Abbasi and my father have relationship for over 30 years,” Maryam said, adding that she would vis­it the former prime minister — Abbasi. The PML-N leader also said that she wanted to work under the supervision of her seniors. Replying to a question, Maryam Nawaz said that the ruling Pakistan Dem­ocratic Movement (PDM) was not an “electoral alliance”. “It cannot be called an electoral alliance for now,” she added.

The PML-N leader said that strengthening her party across the country, including in Karachi and Sindh “is her mission”. “One of the objec­tives of her visits is to find the best candidates for the next elections,” she further said.

The PML-N senior vice-president also avoided commenting on the recent ‘controversial’ statement by her husband — Captain (retd) Safdar — saying that it was his “personal opinion”.

A day earlier, Safdar lashed out at the PML-N for voting to give an extension to former COAS Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, which, he claimed dis­honoured the party’s narra­tive of vote ko Izzat do. “The party’s narrative of respect­ing the public mandate (vote ko izzat do) was very strong earlier but we dishonoured it the day we voted for the ex­tension of army chief General Bajwa,” he had said.