| PTI’s ticket has become a “symbol of s

ISLAMABAD   -  Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Vice President Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday that no power can now save Prime Minister Imran Khan from the wrath of the inflation-hit people.

Talking to journalists here, the failure of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Local Government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a reflection of its poor performance.

Earlier in the day, Maryam Nawaz appeared before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to attend the hearing of her appeals against conviction in the Avenfield reference. IHC accepted the plea of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of adjourning the hearing.

Maryam Nawaz said the anti-graft watchdog had once filed a petition for a regular hearing of the case and it sought adjournment today. She said NAB could not produce any evidence against her before the court, claiming that the cases against her were politically motivated.

She felicitated the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) on winning the first phase of Local Government elections in KP.

She said the victory of JUI-F is like the victory of her own party. The PML-N leader said the failure of PTI in KP was bound to happen due to its “poor performance” and incompetence. She claimed that even the lawmakers of the ruling party were criticising their government, stating that PTI’s ticket has become a “symbol of shame.”

Maryam Nawaz said nobody will take PTI’s ticket now, adding, that those still part of the ruling party must go in public wearing a helmet as the masses were fuming. “The inflation has crushed the people,” she added.

She said the PTI-led government stalled the five percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth target of the Nawaz Sharif government and brought flour and sugar prices as well as dollar exchange rate to a new level.

The PML-N vice president said it is the first government in history that was poorly losing in by-elections. She added that PTI stepped back from the by-poll in Lahore on the pretext of technical grounds as it could not face the public. She said that PTI also lost poorly from Khanewal which it claimed as its ‘home’.

Maryam Nawaz said that after facing consecutive defeats, a respectable man would voluntarily step down from his position, tender an apology and say goodbye. She stated that Imran Khan still has the chance to leave people and admit that ‘he has failed’.

To a question, the PML-N vice president said KP was left behind in development due to the PTI government.

She appealed that KP should give a chance to PML-N while asserting that her party should also converge its focus in the province.

Maryam Nawaz said she could not comment if the establishment remained neutral in KP local government elections. She went on to say that Imran Khan’s performance is such that no power in the world can support him.

Maryam Nawaz said that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif will decide about the candidate of Prime Ministership when the time comes, adding, that she would happily be behind PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif if her father chooses him.

To a question, she reiterated that Nawaz Sharif was willing to come back to his homeland and she wants him to ‘return tomorrow’. Maryam Nawaz further said Nawaz Sharif will return to his soil soon.

Maryam Nawaz did not comment on a question regarding her allegedly leaked tape in which she speaks about her ‘media management’ against the government.

As Maryam Nawaz evaded the question her party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb interrupted by saying “too many questions have been asked.”

A day earlier, amid the ongoing local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Maryam Nawaz had taken a jibe at the PTI for its losses, saying the change that the party had promised is approaching its end and that too, in a humiliating fashion.

“Change is not coming — it is going,” she had written on Twitter, referring to the PTI’s famous slogan “tabdeeli aa nahi rahi, tabdeeli aa gai hay” (change is not coming, it has already arrived).

The government has pushed 220 million people of the country towards “inflation, lawlessness, and incompetence,” as a result of which the masses have been cursing the government, she had said.

hame.” | No Power can save PM Imran Khan