Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said that Imran Khan’s planned long march is against the establishment and not the government.
Speaking at a press conference in Lahore today, she asked the audience if they really think that when Imran Khan refers to Mir Sadiq and Mir Jafar, he is referring to herself and her father Nawaz Sharif. “Our faces are etched on his heart. He does not sleep because our faces are constantly on his mind,” she said.
She went on to say that when Khan is really referring to the establishment when he brings up Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq. “The threat he is issuing is not to us, but the establishment,” she said.
Maryam further said that the PTI long march to be held tomorrow, where Imran Khan has been demanding the dissolution of the National Assembly, is also not against the government, but it is against the establishment.
Continuing to berate Khan, she questioned why he wanted the youth of this country to come out on the streets and brave the extreme heat, while his two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, get to live abroad and enjoy the ‘cool breezes’ of England.
Maryam said that Imran begun his political career from ‘containers in D-Chowk’, and that is where his politics will ‘bury him’ as well.
She called attention to the fact that final exams are about to begin in schools and colleges all over the country, including Islamabad. “Do you think we can let you disrupt the eduction of the children of Pakistan, all while your children get to go to university abroad?” she asked.
She also said that the government would not get pressured by PTI to hold early elections.
“Imran Khan is afraid that if the PML-N government completes its tenure, it would clean up all the rubbish they have left us with, and it would then be an end to his political career,” Maryam added.
It’s not about elections as all stakeholders know it’s inevitable and can easily be negotiated.
It’s about PTI and it’s sympathisers including current and ex-services personnel just realising the core issue that holds back Pakistan and asking for “civilian supremacy”.
However, opposition having tried this and failing are a decade ahead and have already moved on to a newer understanding with the military and judiciary that the need is not for “one page” or “neutrality” but “civilian independence” with a constitutional role of military and judiciary. That’s what DG ISPR meant by being “apolitical”,