Calling former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan a ‘liar’ and a ‘conspirator’, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz said on Thursday that today she wanted to see the face of the man who had levelled what she called baseless allegations against her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Speaking to the media outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), a jubilant Maryam Nawaz said that when media had created an uproar over the Panama Leaks six years back, her father had said that he and his entire family would defend themselves against these accusations. “And today our trial is over. Today we stand vindicated,” she said, adding, “Imran! You are a helpless human being.”
She said the moment she heard the court’s verdict, she missed her father.
Maryam also hit out at PTI chairman over his audio leak in which he and his then principal secretary Azam Khan could be heard discussing the US cypher, saying he will now have to face law.
He (Imran), she added, told Azam that he would now play with the US cypher, but would stop short of mentioning the US’s name. “But while playing with the cypher, he ended up playing with the country’s interests,” she said, and demanded punishment for the PTI chairman.
PML-N Vice President said the first person she talked to soon after listening to the court’s decision was her father. “Human beings face crises. And same was the case with us (the Sharif family),” she said, adding, “At last, we came out victorious by the grace of The Almighty Allah.”
She thanked her lawyers Salman Akram Raja and Amjad Pervaiz for fighting her case diligently.
Maryam claimed that no other family had endured as many as hardships as the Sharif family had done.
She said she would address a detailed presser on her acquittal in the Avenfield case. “Look Imran, The Almighty Allah has proved you a ‘liar’. Former finance minister Ishaq Dar had gone to the UK on board the prime minister’s plane and has also returned in the same plane,” she said, adding, “How ironical it is that those very people who had made false claims against Dar, now administered the oath to him.”
Maryam alleged that a conspiracy was hatched to oust Nawaz Sharif from power. “The fact is that now the person who had benefitted from that conspiracy and those who had hatched it were now the losers,” she commented.
Calling Imran a politician who had been funded by foreign powers, PML-N vice president accused him of receiving dollars in lieu of ruining the country. “For four years, he remained at the helm of affairs,” she said, adding his audio leak had proved that he was out to tamper with the minutes of his meeting with his then principal secretary Azam Khan, foreign minister and foreign secretary on the US cypher issue. “For Imran, the country is like Qaddafi Stadium,” she remarked.
She also slammed PTI chairman and his part leaders Shaukat Tarin for trying to torpedo Pakistan’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Maryam demanded the government to form not a general but a high-powered joint investigation team (JIT) as Imran Khan’s narrative of ‘cypher conspiracy’ is a serious issue.
She urged the government to include officers of the top intelligence agencies of the country in the JIT. Diplomat Asad Majeed should also be made a part of the high-powered JIT, she added.
The PML-N vice-president also warned his party’s coalition government in the centre that if it didn't do this then everyone should go home and take a long sleep.
Maryam said Imran Khan had tried to corrupt the minds of children in his speech at Lahore’s Government College University and his chief of staff Shehbaz Gill made remarks about divisions in the Pakistan Army in a TV programme.
Maryam said a conspiracy was hatched by Imran Khan from Prime Minister's Office and played religious cards but no religious scholar opposed him.
She said the government was also seeing labelling of people with titles of Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq but did not take any notice.
The PML-N leader said Imran Khan made country’s institutions controversial. “Even Pirni (his wife) had also advised her social media handler Arsalan to declare traitor whoever criticized them,” she added.