Maryam Nawaz blames Imran Khan of orchestrating and carrying out May 9 violent attacks

OKARA, Jan 15 (SABAH): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Monday kicked off her party’s election campaign with a public rally in Okara.

Addressing the rally, Maryam Nawaz said PML-N supremo and her father Nawaz Sharif had sent her to lead the Okara rally.

She hurled an array of criticism at Imran Khan during the address and blamed him of orchestrating and carrying out May 9 violent attacks. She mocked the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder over snatching of his electoral symbol saying that his election symbol should not be bat but a “baton”.

The PML-N chief organiser also dubbed his party as a group of terrorists. “A terrorist group could not be given a political party’s electoral symbol,” she said.

“Your electoral symbol should be the watch that you stole or the petrol bomb that you hurled on police officials,” she said, adding “what goes around comes around”.

“Your electoral symbol was not bat but baton with which you attacked military installments. The baton has been snatched from your hand,” she maintained.

Maryam said the PTI was facing was a result of what they sowed against others. Imran was used to being a blue-eyed boy, she said. She said neither the PML-N nor Nawaz were taking revenge from the PTI, she said.

The one who used to call others thieves himself stole watches from the Toshakhana, she said.

“The facility to get (desired) verdicts by calling (judge’s) mother-in-law is not available anymore,” Maryam claimed, adding that they should ask their lawyers to appear in court fully prepared.

Maryam said they would have thought they could win an election like 2018 by shutting down the RTS button. The facility was no longer available, she said. She said his umpires and forgery both were exposed.

Luring the rally’s participants to vote for the PML-N, she said the faster and more you vote for the party the sooner you will become prosperous, inflation will drop and utility bills will be deflated.

“You have to stamp the lion symbol on Election Day. Stamp on lion symbol on February 8 to make the country rich. Our government’s entire focus will be on cutting inflation. My main focus will be on improving youth’s future,” she said.

Bashing the PTI even further, Maryam said that the party’s election symbol was not a ‘bat’, but a ‘baton’. “The baton that its workers held in their hands, and used to threaten the people. The baton that they used to attack military installations [on May 9, 2023],”

Casting doubt on Imran Khan’s injuries sustained during the Wazirabad attack, she said, “The oppressor is now forced to save face, sometimes by using the excuse of a plastered leg and other times by being in a wheelchair.”

The PML-N leader said the role of everyone who played a role in “oppressing” former three-time prime minister, also her father Nawaz Sharif, was coming on to an end. She said it was not Nawaz Sharif “avenging the injustices meted out to him, but the law of nature”.

She said the stronger a government the PML-N supremo gets, the better the facilities people will get.

Maryam concluded her address by thanking the people of Okara who “attended the rally despite the severe cold and fog”.

Earlier, a charged crowd greeted her at Phoolnagar in Kasur, as she reached the town on her way to Okara from Lahore.