Maryam Nawaz claims Imran Khan govt 'begging' opposition for talks

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday claimed that Imran Khan-led government is "begging" before the opposition for a dialogue, but the opposition had decided not to hold any talks with it, reported Dawn.

"You will be surprised if I tell you the details as to how they [the government people] are begging before the opposition for talks," Maryam said in response to a question about a meeting of the opposition leaders with a government team before the start of the National Assembly session on Friday.

She said the opposition would submit its resignations from the assemblies at an appropriate time and with a consensus within the 10-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), reported Dawn.

"Resignations will be submitted and a long march will take place," she said, adding that the present "incompetent government" would not be able to stay in power anymore. She declared 2021 an election year.

Maryam made the above statement while attending a joint meeting of the party's parliamentary groups in the National Assembly and Senate.

Moreover, Maryam said the PML-N would not allow the government to change the accountability laws, adding that the present rulers would face the same NAB (National Accountability Bureau) which was now for the opposition.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) parliamentarians have ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the government on any issue and reposed full confidence in the leadership and narrative of their party's supreme leader Nawaz Sharif.

They also declared the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) proposal to move a no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan "impracticable", reported Dawn.

Later, Maryam through her social media account on Twitter, termed the support of the party members to Nawaz Sharif "phenomenal" and said the PML-N had truly become an ideological party.

"The party stands committed and united under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif more than ever before. The support and resolve were phenomenal. This is new, ideological PML-N Alhamdulillah," wrote Maryam Nawaz with her pictures at the PML-N meeting.

During the meeting, PML-N besides discussing the political situation also talked about some organisational matters.

After the two-hour-long meeting, the party released to the media a copy of the hard-hitting resolution passed by the PML-N parliamentarians.

Through the resolution, the PML-N pointed out that "the appointments of retired and in-service military officers in the institutions within Pakistan are practically painting a picture of martial law in the country due to which the civil bureaucracy in the institutions and the people at large are suffering from severe uneasiness and anxiety", reported Dawn.

The resolution announced full support for PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif's narrative and the principled position taken by him. "Nawaz Sharif has not only pointed out the correct reasons for the serious dangers facing the nation but also proves that he is a true patriot by presenting these hard and inconvenient truths to the people," added the release.

The PML-N members said in the resolution that Sharif's narrative of "restoration of sanctity of vote had become the voice of the entire nation". "In the light of its leader's vision, narrative and insight, the party consider the proposed course of action to address these issues to be the right path," they added.

The meeting slammed the unjustified arrest and detention of party president Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and Khawaja Asif and Syed Khurshid Shah and the reprehensible treatment of the prisoners, reported Dawn.

The PML-N said Pakistan was fast becoming a "failed state" at home and abroad. On the one hand, national assets were being confiscated and, on the one hand, Pakistan's image was being defiled in the international arena, it added, adding that the responsibility for this "national embarrassment" lies on the "incompetent, thieving and foreign-imposed government".

The meeting expressed grave concern over the economic condition of the country. It called for an investigation into the nationwide power outage.

PML-N also charged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with obstructing the disclosure of facts of the foreign funding case for six years, which is regrettable, worrying and reprehensible. The party demanded that all documents related to the case, including 23 secret bank accounts, be made public and all its proceedings are done in full public view.

The meeting also condemned the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Bill and its immunity and said that a person (retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa) facing controversy and allegations of corruption should not be the head of a sensitive project like CPEC as it was against the national interest.

Earlier, Bajwa was exposed by local media of several offshore businesses, including more than 100 companies and franchises in the US, the UAE and Canada in which his families were involved.

In 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan had promulgated an ordinance to establish a CPEC Authority ahead of his visit to China and had appointed Bajwa as its chairperson. While earlier, the Planning and Development Ministry used to oversee the CPEC projects.

(ANI)

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