LAHORE     -    Pakistan Muslim League-N's Senior Vice-President and Chief Organizer Maryam Nawaz Friday said that Pakistan Tehreek- e-Insaaf should not be treated as a political party but as a banned terrorist organization keeping in view the recent happenings in Zaman Park. “What is happening in Zaman Park? No political party has ever done this in the past; petrol bombs have been hurled, trained agents of banned organizations have been kept in Zaman Park”, she remarked while addressing a press conference at the party's Model Town secretariat here. She was asked if the PML-N was willing to talk to Imran Khan after his latest offer of talks with all stakeholders. Maryam claimed that the PTI had become militant and a terrorist party and should be treated as such. “There could be no negotiations with a terrorist organization”, she said, adding that he had tried all tactics and now he was offering to negotiate. Maryam said that it is always the banned terrorist organization which use petrol bombs against the state.

The PML-N leader said the scenes witnessed at Zaman Park this week have not been created by any political party in the country’s 75-year history. “Political and democratic parties face executions, prisons, exiles in their democratic struggle. But the PTI leader, on the other hand, attacked the police, the state which is an act of open rebellion against the state”, she maintained, adding that actions are being taken against the police by the operatives of the banned organization in Zaman Park.

She alleged that Imran Khan Zaman sat inside the Zaman Park bunker gave orders to throw petrol bombs. He also pitted the provincial units against each other by bringing police from Gilgit- Baltistan. “During his government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he kept bringing groups and making them stand in front of the police in Islamabad. Terrorist organizations used to train their people”, she further alleged. Citing an audio leak of Dr Yasmin Rashid, she said that Imran Khan was telling his supporters that those who would hurl petrol bombs and do acts of terrorism will be given party tickets to contest elections. She said this man had put the law and the constitution under his feet. The PML-N’s senior Vice President said that all this had been happening since 2014.

“They dug graves on the Dastur Highway and mocked the state; They attacked PTV, Parliament, burnt bills”, she said, adding that previously these things had been hidden because the mentors and facilitators were present.

She recalled the Panama case proceedings and said that Imran Khan used to sit cross-legged in Justice Khosa’s court every day, but no one arrested him despite his being a proclaimed offender in certain cases. Taking a dig at the former Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saeed Khosa, she said that Justice Khosa called Nawaz Sharif a Godfather and the Sicilian mafia. “He (Justice Khosa) should now see who is actually acting like a Godfather and Sicilian mafia”, she said, speaking in the context of recent happenings at Zaman Park.

She believed that the remains of former facilitators of Imran Khan were still active and facilitating him.

During the press conference, Maryam Nawaz also showed highlights of Imran Khan’s violent acts in the name of Tehreek- e-Insaf’s political struggle.

She said that if the state wanted to arrest Imran Khan, it was just a matter of five minutes; but the state was restrained to avoid bloodshed. She said that apart from the presence of terrorists at Zaman Park, innocent PTI workers were also there, and it wanted to protect the latter.

“What is the difference between the operation in Rahim Yar Khan’s Kacha area and what is happening in Zaman Park? There the robbers push back the police and the same is happening in Zaman Park”, she averred. She said Imran Khan’s own children were living luxurious lives in London and he himself was sitting in a bunker in Zaman Park while he used the party workers as human shields for his protection.

The PML-N’s chief organizer also called for an end to the practice of alleged bench fixing in courts saying one person should not have the power to constitute benches.

She also alleged that judges with a mind- set against the PML-N were being continuously taken to the benches. To a question, Maryam Nawaz said that PML-N will come back to power and change the system of appointment of judges through judicial reforms.