ISLAMABAD - PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was an independent lawmaker and had no relation with PML-N. She was talking to the media after attending a hearing of a case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). She said she should be asked questions about lawmakers who contested election on the symbol of Lion and Ch Nisar was an independent MPA, so how could she make any comment about him. Nisar was not part of PML-N, she added.
To a question about Ch Nisar’s prospects to become Punjab chief minister, she said she did not know who was behind conspiracies being hatched in this regard.
She said Opposition parties were not going to form a new political alliance against the government, adding that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was intact.
She endorsed PML-N leader Khaqan Abbasi’s point of view about return of the PPP in the PDM. Abbasi had said that the PPP will have to rebuild trust before it makes a comeback to the alliance that had weakened earlier this year due to conflict over Senate elections.
She further said that the PDM still awaits PPP’s clarification about its role in the Senate election, when the latter managed to get elected Yousaf Raza Gillani Opposition leader in the upper house of the Parliament.
Replying to a question why she was not invited to the PDM dinner, hosted by her PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, Maryam said Shehbaz had invited the parliamentary leaders in his capacity as Leaders of the Opposition in National Assembly.
“Since I am not a parliamentarian, therefore, I was not invited to the event,” she said.
Maryam said that they had the magical number in Punjab Assembly necessary to topple the government of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.
She also lashed out at the government over rising inflation and poverty in the country, adding that the PTI government had damaged the economy badly.