It was a ‘good thing’ that the armed forces had decided to stay away from politics & limit itself to its constitutional role: Maryam Nawaz
ISLAMABAD, May 12 (SABAH): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that the army chief should be a person who had a “flawless reputation”, free from any criticism or doubts.
Maryam Nawaz made these remarks in a press conference outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday while answering a question about Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif’s comments, wherein he had said that former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed’s name could be considered for the new army chief.
Maryam Nawaz said that the army was a respectable institution for the country and its people. “The nation looks at the army for the unity and security of Pakistan. So it is important that the army chief is a person who worthy and stainless so that people salute the Pakistan Army.”
Maryam added that it was a “good thing” that the armed forces had decided to stay away from politics and limit itself to its constitutional role as this had been a struggle of politicians.
“But there’s only man who has a problem with this … Who has gotten used to cheating, who doesn’t have feet of his own and needs support,” she said. “And it suits him to drag institutions into politics and make them controversial. It’s only one man and his name is Imran Khan.”
Maryam also asserted that elections had to happen and they were the solution to the crisis.
She said that a short-term coalition government could not make big decisions. “Nawaz Sharif got Pakistan in a bad shape but eventually things got better in two to three years. Unfortunately, this interim setup can not do it.”
“I just want people not to get lured and vote for Nawaz Sharif whenever elections are held,” the PML-N leader cautioned.
Meanwhile, recalling her conversation with Professor Israr and Hakeem Saeed in the 1990s, she said that she now understood when people said Imran Khan was being prepared to “ruin Pakistan”.
“The conspiracy that he hatched against Pakistan, even if all countries united, they couldn’t have done it,” she claimed, saying that the man who was primarily responsible for the country’s economy today was blaming the PML-N government for inflation.
“But people know that you’re to be blamed for this inflation and destruction,” Maryam pointed out. “When you bring a player from cricket into power, he will do this, he doesn’t know what an economy is. The way Imran ruined Pakistan’s ties with other countries, it would have bad effects on our foreign policy. We will have to spend years to rectify it.”
She further accused the PTI chairman of using his “conspiracy lies” to hide from the failures of his government, alleging that former information minister Fawad Chaudhry appointed his family members and spent heavy sums on them from the national treasury.
“You will find Farah Khan in every department. It was Farah who was running the province, not Usman Buzdar,” she said.
Maryam also called out the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for dragging cases against her. “When NAB was in their [PTI’s] control, they thought they could manipulate us. There were appeals for hearings on daily basis and quick decisions. But ever since Imran’s ouster, NAB has been clueless. They make excuses at every hearing because they don’t have evidence.”
She claimed that if NAB had evidence, 10 months would have been sufficient to present it to the judges.
Subsequently, the PML-N leader requested the IHC bench and Chief Justice Athar Minallah to stop the “violation of my rights”. “My honour is at stake when I come to court. I want to request the court to take notice of NAB’s unfairness as justice delayed is justice denied.”
Be it NAB or a fake case, she demanded, anyone involved in political engineering should be brought to justice.