By Hamza Ameer
Islamabad, March 11 Maryam Nawaz Sharif, chief organiser of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is working up her party's campaign for the upcoming elections to the Punjab province with a narrative, targeting PTI chief Imran Khan and his "persisting support" in the judiciary.
Maryam is holding public rallies, party meeting and engagements with the media to disseminate the anti-Imran narrative, in which, she slams the former premier of being a puppet of the former military chief General (retd) Qamar Jawed Bajwa and former chief of ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) General (retd) Faiz Hameed, whom she accuses of illegally mentoring, supporting and facilitating Khan during the 2018 elections and later using their offices to manipulate legal cases against Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and other senior party members of PML-N.
Maryam does not shy away from stating that Khan is still the "blue-eyed boy" for many judges in the top courts and is still getting inside support from what she terms as remains of Faiz Hameed in the military establishment.
"They (judges & military establishment) will not be forgiven for disqualifying Nawaz Sharif and imposing Imran Khan on the nation. Those who conspired against my father are not confessing to their crimes," she said.
"Imran Khan's facilitators are running away," she added.
Maryam and her father Nawaz Sharif were arrested mid-air on their way back to Pakistan from London and sentenced to imprisonment in corruption cases of assets beyond means during Khan's tenure.
Nawaz Sharif and Maryam were sent to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi first and then moved to Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore to complete their sentence. Later, the court granted permission to Nawaz Sharif to travel to London on medical reasons while Maryam was granted bail in the cases against her.
However, when Khan government was removed through a no-confidence vote in the parliament during April 2022 and the coalition government of PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) took over control; Maryam and her husband Captain (Retd.) Safdar were declared free of all charges against them.
Since then, Maryam has been campaigning against Khan for "concocting" cases against her and her family out of fear of losing power.
"Former Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan Saqib Nisar's video conversation confirmed that he was directed by then ISI chief Faiz Hameed to give wrong judgements against me and my father," she said.
"It was open to all that Khan and his supporters in the establishment and judiciary wanted to keep me and my father behind bars till the elections were completed. Because they knew that even after being targeted and suppressed in false cases, Nawaz Sharif and his daughter would win the election in 2018," she added.
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