Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice President, Maryam Nawaz on Monday refused to recognise Imran Khan as the legitimate prime minister, saying: "Calling a selected and fake person as prime minister is an insult to the position of the premiership."
Talking to reporters after attending a consultative meeting of the party's senior leaders here at the Parliament House, Maryam Nawaz gave an indication of doing active politics in the days to come, saying that the party follows only one narrative which is given by its Quaid Nawaz Sharif and that is: "Give respect to vote." She added that even those who disagreed to his narrative have now realised and are standing with him.
"There is only one narrative, it is of Nawaz Sharif's and the same is also of Shehbaz Sharif. Shehbaz Sharif considers Nawaz Sharif as his leader and he considers this from the core of his heart," she said, adding if some people had two opinions previously, they are now considering this narrative as a guarantee of the democratic and prosperous Pakistan," she said.
Commenting on the statement of chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB), she asked as to why he does not see the fines submitted by Aleema Khan, the sister of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Without naming anyone, she said that the properties of others when disclosed are not only blocked from appearance in media but no actions are also being taken against them.
"In such a situation, there would be a selective accountability which will have no credibility...There would neither be any credibility of the one doing the selective credibility, nor will the institution enjoy its credibility anymore," she further said.
She maintained that NAB has no independent status as the government ministers and the 'selected and fake' Prime Minister have become its spokespersons. "The fake person was brought to sit on the position of the Prime Minister, I don't recognise him as the Prime Minister, as accepting him as the premier would be an insult of the position," she said.
Responding to another query, she said that PML-N leadership has been facing fabricated cases. "Despite the fact that this is nothing but a fake accountability process, we have been facing these fabricated cases. We are not those who are wanted to the courts and are absconders," she said in a reference to former President Pervez Musharraf.
She insisted that there is no point in Nawaz Sharif's narrative which violates the Constitution, adding if there is no respect of the vote then it leads to what has been happening in the country for the past nine months. "The problems of the people can only be resolved if a genuine elected government is in place through votes of the people," she added. To another query, Maryam Nawaz said that in the days to come, PML-N will be more proactive in doing politics on issues.
Updating the media persons about the meeting, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal and others said that the party has demanded that the government should make the conditions agreed with International Monetary Fund (IMF) public so that the public would know the facts. In any country, Abbasi stated if the currency rate decreases even by 0.1 percent, it becomes part of a public debate. He said that the budget has not been announced, the deal with the IMF has not even been signed yet while the SBP has increased the policy interest rate by 1.5 percent.
He said that there are a lot of suspicions regarding the conditions that the government has agreed to with the Fund and these should be made public, as State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has raised the policy interest rate by 1.5 percent all of a sudden which would have an adverse affect on the business community and will also lead to rise in unemployment.
To a question, Abbasi said that it has to be the all-parties conference (APC), to be convened after the Eid, to decide 'whether to send the government back to home or call for the fresh elections.' "We are not currently pursuing the movement to topple the government, but want resolution of the problems being faced by the masses due to incompetence of the government," he said. "This is a fallen government. We don't mean to overthrow it. Our real aim is to resolve people's problems," he added.
He said that the meeting also discussed the prevailing political situation and the worsening economic crisis, adding that the party has also decided that its economic council will propose an alternative economic strategy in order to protect the country from the government's anti-public policies.
He also shared the party's demands, urging the government to make them part of the upcoming budget, saying that in light of the rising inflation, minimum wage should be fixed as Rs 20,000, tariffs of power and gas be reverted to that of May 31, 2018 as the increase in prices is not justified and prices of urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) be reverted to that of May 31, 2018.
He further said that prices of petroleum products should be brought down to a level where they are tolerable and no new taxes should be introduced and the current tax rates should not be increased in the upcoming budget. He said that the party also expressed concerns over the alleged political role of the NAB, adding that 'the chairman NAB should join politics if he wants to do the politics."
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