PTI march against establishment, not govt: Maryam Nawaz

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Central Vice-President Maryam Nawaz has said that Imran Khan’s long march is not against the government but the establishment.

In a press conference held here on Tuesday, she questioned who was funding Imran Khan's long march. "This long march is against the establishment," she said, adding all the institutions should be on one page to save the country.

She made an appeal to the judiciary to keep the country's interest first and resist from reacting to media reports. "There is a way to deal with this fitna in the Quran, the Quran tells us how to deal with a fitna,” she said.

“Imran Khan has been using the religion card and has raised the slogan of the state of Madina but the people of Pakistan have seen his horrible face,” she said. “All the institutions should recognise the fitna and try to stop it. The government has information that they have collected tear-gas shells and weapons,” she claimed.

Maryam Nawaz said that Imran Khan was responsible for the martyrdom of the constable in Lahore. She said Imran Khan’s bullying, rigging and pressure tactics would not affect the government.

Talal Chaudhry, Azma Bukhari and other party leaders were also present at the presser held at the party's central secretariat in Model Town.

Maryam said that the martyred constable had five children, the eldest daughter is 11 years old while the youngest is eight months old.

“Yes, there is no doubt about the purpose of the march. Shooting the law-enforcer in the chest exposes their intentions. Whatever the government is doing, whatever security measures it is taking are for the protection of the people and it is its responsibility,” she said. She said the government had information that Imran Khan wanted to create chaos.

“The participants in the march have a stockpile of teargas shells and other weapons,” she said, adding Imran planned to attack law-enforcement agencies and shed blood. "He has already martyred a constable and the act has exposed his intentions,” she said.

She said that Imran Khan was in shock after his ouster from the government, adding he was building a narrative of a foreign conspiracy against him. “When all his dramas failed and the truth revealed, he decided to put the country on fire through a long march,” she said, adding Imran Khan is saying that the country will become Sri Lanka but it will never happen.

“You are trying to make the country like Sri Lanka but God willing, you will not be successful. I want to ask you to bring your sons and no one will touch them. Revolution starts at home but your children are out of country and you are calling the sons of the soil to bring about a revolution,” she said.

She said that Imran Khan said that there was a US conspiracy against him but when he gave an interview to CNN, he did not talk about it. She said he was angry because the US president had never called him.

“Imran Khan has foolishly branded friends of Pakistan its enemies,” she said and maintained that no country stood by him. She said that he was running false campaigns and building false narratives.

“What kind of freedom are you talking about? You have named it Azadi March but you help Farah Gogi to flee. You are threatening the institutions. You want to pressurise the institutions. You used to say that I did not see a neutral chief from the current chief,” she said.

Maryam Nawaz said that when the Chief Election Commissioner had received irrefutable evidence of foreign funding, Imran Khan started campaigning against it. She said the courts were independent when they had sentenced Nawaz Sharif and his daughter. He launched a campaign against the judiciary when the courts had ruled against him over his unconstitutional actions.

“When the court took a suo motu against Shehbaz Sharif, he took a U-turn and began showering praise on it. I would like to say to the courts to give judgments in favor of the country. Decide in favour of the future of the nation,” she said.

Maryam said Imran Khan was saying that Hamza Shehbaz was not Chief Minister of the Punjab then who was Chief Minister, Farah Gogi, Ahsan Gujjar or Usman Buzdar? She said Hamza Shehbaz was an elected chief minister.

She said that if the institutions had decided that they would abide by the Constitution and law and not support him, Imran started a campaign against them. She said that very soon Nawaz Sharif would be here. She said that if no obstacles were created to the government, it would deliver, correct the direction of the country and take it out of the crisis.