LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz has strongly criticized Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for ‘sacrificing everything’ for a ‘minor, inconsequential office’.
“I deeply regret that despite understanding the situation, Yousuf Raza Gillani has dealt a massive blow to democracy and our cause for a very minor and inconsequential office,” Maryam said while talking to journalists in Jatti Umra today (Saturday).
“I am glad a visible line has been drawn,” she said, adding, “On one side there are those who are sacrificing their own wellbeing for the public and on the other side are those who have sacrificed all their principles for the smallest of gains.”
In response to a question regarding the future of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the PML-N leader said, “I am waiting for PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rahman to make his position on this matter public.”
“I also feel this damage has been done primarily to you, because the people are watching who is standing where and who is continuing to struggle,” she maintained.
She further said that this wasn’t the PDM’s defeat. “It is the defeat of the people who sacrificed their principles for an inconsequential office,” Maryam added.
“This is a very meaningless, very transitionary victory, and I regret that for this small gain, you have taken votes from the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP),” she said, adding, “If you really wanted this meaningless post, you should have asked Nawaz Sharif for it.”
She also claimed that the PML-N’s candidate for opposition leader in the Senate, Azam Nazeer Tarar received a phone call from Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani offering him the support of BAP senators. “Tarar told him I don’t need your votes. I will not betray my party,” Maryam quoted Tarar.
“This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that the Leader of the Opposition has been elected — rather selected — by government senators,” she concluded.
A day earlier, the PPP rounded 30 senators and gone ahead to secure the position for its candidate, Yousaf Raza Gillani, without the PDM’s blessing.
