LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz said on Saturday that the PDM as well as the PML-N wanted to see electoral reforms and real democracy in the country.

However, she ruled out any possibility of cooperation on any issue with Prime Minister Imran Khan at the helm.

Talking to media before her departure for Daska where she is going to address a rally in connection with the by-election campaign for NA-75, Maryam said that it was wrong to say that the PDM supported voting through secret ballot.

“We did not support secret balloting; we only want to expose the government’s double standards,” she said.

She alleged that different tactics were being used to target the party ahead of the Senate elections but made it clear the PML-N was a fighter and would triumph in the upcoming Senate polls.

“The attempts aimed at getting loyalties changed should be stopped at once,” she asserted.

She claimed that the reason why the party could not be broken up was that it had become an ideological party now.

To a query, the PML-N leader alleged that people were witnessing that courts were being “pressured into saving selected PM Imran Khan. It was not wise to support Imran Khan”.

She added: “Restraining Justice Qazi Faez Isa from hearing cases involving Prime Minister Imran Khan is not good for the credibility and respect of the judiciary.”

About the video of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members selling their votes in lieu of hefty amounts, she said all the characters in the video belonged to the PTI.

“It was the PTI that filmed and released it,” she said and wondered who they were trying to befool through this video.

She opined that the lawmakers sold their votes not only in exchange of money, but also when they were threatened with dire consequences on phone.

To another query, she said she had respect for the ISPR DG, who was a nice man. However, she said, “The way Senate elections were stolen from PML-N; the way 2018 elections were rigged; the treatment meted out to Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Shaukat Siddiqui were enough to belie claims of impartiality.”

Maryam said selectors choice backfired as Imran Khan failed to deliver goods since he turned out to be incompetent.

She dispelled the impression that the PML-N was making backdoor contacts with the country’s establishment.

“We do not need backdoor contacts since we have no worries,” she said.

She said, “Every coming day is proving that Mian Sahib’s vision was right.”

Meanwhile, the PML-N has formally announced its candidates for the Senate elections.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a statement that the PML-N’s parliamentary board had finalized the names for tickets for the Senate elections.

She said that names of five party leaders from the Punjab province had been approved. They are Azam Nazir Tarar on the seat for technocrats, Pervez Rashid, Mushahidullah Khan and Prof Sajid Mir on general seats and Sadia Abbasi on women’s seat.

The PML-N has also left it to its provincial leadership in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to decide about awarding tickets on its own.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021