ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Thursday broke her four-month silence saying she couldn’t be threatened or intimidated as her commitment with her “cause” had strengthened with the passage of time.
“I remained silent due to some personal reasons,” she said while talking to reporters here after meeting with senior party leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi at his residence.
She added that this did not mean that her resolve to stand by the constitution and civilian supremacy had weakened.
“I am under the party discipline and when the party leadership would instruct [me] to come forward and play due role, you will never see me lagging behind,” she said while flanked by senior party leaders including Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and Mariyum Aurangzeb.
The daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, along with her husband Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar, especially drove from Lahore to the capital to meet two senior party leaders including Abbasi and former interior minister Ahsan Iqabl. Both the leaders are facingNAB in separate corruption cases and recently got released from jail on court orders.
This was Maryam’s first media appearance since she was granted bail from the Lahore High Court in November 2019 in Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption case. Her silence had given rise to speculations that perhaps she was not speaking as part of a deal with the powers-that-be. She remained politically active, especially on social media, since 2017 when her father was disqualified as prime minister.
“If anyone thinks that I can be stopped to pursue my resolve, they should know that my resolve to stand by civilian supremacy and constitution has strengthened more,” she said.
She said that her father went abroad for medical treatment because his life was in danger. “I don’t want that my father would be in distress because of me and do not want him to abandon his treatment and return because of me,” she added.
She also negated media reports that her father had refused to go through a medical procedure unless she would not side by him in London. “This is completely false, he did not say this,” she said. She explained that her father was hospitalized twice to go for a medical procedure at a time when her court hearings were scheduled. “So he had said that we can wait for a day or two, if Maryam gets permission to travel.”
The government had placed Maryam’s name on the no-fly list and she has approached the court to get permission to fly abroad.
Last month, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif in a statement had said that Nawaz’s medical procedure had been delayed twice because Maryam could not travel to London. Media had also reported quoting Nawaz that she would not undergo the treatment in the absence of her daughter.
She said that she wanted to be in London when her father was going through a major heart procedure and “I am sure he wants all his children to be with him.” “So this is a valid wish and I don’t think this should be politicized.” She added that if courts didn’t allow him to leave, then she would urge her father to get his procedure done as soon as possible.
Maryam later met PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal at his residence. Speaking to the media again, she lauded party leaders Iqbal, Abbasi, Ismail, Rana Sanaullah and Khwaja Saad Rafique — all of them are facing corruption cases by the anti-corruption watchdog — for sticking to their stance what she said that they did not betray their leader Nawaz Sharif and the party.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the occasion condemned the NAB action to arrest Editor-in-Chief of Jang Group Mir Shakilur Rehman in an alleged corruption case.