Maryam demands 'overturning' Nawaz's conviction before elections

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice-President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz Monday demanded redressal of "injustice" against her father and party supremo, Nawaz Sharif, before the next elections take place in the country.

Maryam, while addressing her party's workers' convention in Sahiwal, said: “Elections will be held after the conviction of innocent Nawaz Sharif is overturned.”

Nawaz — who is residing in London since 2019 — stepped down as the prime minister on July 28, 2017, after being disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision on the case.

The five-member SC bench had unanimously disqualified Nawaz for failing to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nominations papers for the 2013 General Election, stating that this meant he was not "honest" and "truthful", as per the Constitution.

Speaking to the PML-N workers, Maryam said: "Justice first, then elections will be held." She maintained that polls would be conducted in the country when the vote is given respect.

The PML-N leader said that her party was not afraid of elections, adding that they were preparing for the upcoming polls.

“The elections will be held after [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] PTI Chairman Imran Khan will be measured on the same standards of justice set for Nawaz Sharif,” she added.

The PML-N leader asserted that the polls would be held when the “watch thief” is brought to justice. Maryam accused Bushra Bibi, former first lady, of receiving a five-carat diamond for approval of each file during the past PTI-led government.

On June 6, 2022, an alleged audio recording of an alleged conversation, purportedly between property tycoon Malik Riaz and his daughter Amber Riaz was revealed by PML-N’s leader Ataullah Tarar.

In the audio, the two could be heard discussing how the former first lady refused to accept a three-carat diamond ring from them. Amber said that she had a meeting with "her" (Farah Gogi), therefore, a five-carat diamond ring should be arranged for Bushra Bibi before that, adding that the ring would cost Rs10 million.

Riaz, however, had rejected the authenticity of the audio.

Speaking about Khan’s reaction to audio leaks, the PML-N scion said the PTI chief would go on about "agencies recording” when he was in power. “Today, he asks who did the recording and who taped. You should speak up about what is in the audio tapes,” she asked Khan in her address.

“You have done bench fixing with the connivance of your facilitators,” she said while questioning the deposed prime minister.

'Khan-supporting establishment gone home'

The PML-N leader claimed that traces that former spy chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed (retd) left behind were still saving Khan. Hamid is hatching conspiracies even today in Chakwal, she added.

Dubbing former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar “Dam Wala Baba”, Maryam said that he was still assigning the task to his “group” installed in the judiciary.

Berating the PTI chairman, Maryam said that Khan, despite being an "absconder" at that time, used to attend the hearing of the Panama papers case on daily basis in the court of Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.

Taking a jibe at Khan, the PML-N leader said that whenever the court summons him, the PTI chief shows his plaster cast. She also raised questions over the “slow pace” of proceedings of the cases filed against the deposed prime minister.

Maryam told Khan that the establishment, who reportedly brought him into power, has gone home now.

Commenting on the PTI chief’s court cases, Maryam asked him to stop being a cowardly leader and face the music. “A leader is not one who hides in his house with a plaster cast on his leg.”

Maryam insisted that the man who hid his child from Pakistan’s courts should be questioned.

She recalled that when the hearing of the Panama Papers case was going on, Khan was “wanted”, but would still come to follow Justice Asif Saeed Khosa’s court proceedings every day.