ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz, on Wednesday, lambasted Prime Minister Imran Khan for making important appointments in defence institutions controversial, saying “it is neither a matter of democratic principles nor discretionary powers, but a matter of sticking to power.”
Talking to reporters outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the PML-N leader said that there is no doubt that the Constitution gives the right to appointment of the director general, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to an elected prime minister.
“But Imran Khan sahib is neither a constitutional prime minister nor an elected one. Rather, he is a person who has occupied the chair of the premier by snatching mandate of Nawaz Sharif,” she alleged.
She further stated: “You can call him an “occupier and a selected”, but you cannot call him as an elected or constitutional prime minister, because he doesn’t have the peoples’ mandate and moral grounds to be the one.”
She also accused the prime minister of making decisions on the basis of “witchcraft” instead of running the country’s affairs through the constitutional way.
“The person who believes in making such important appointments through the use of ‘magic’, on the basis of “witchcraft” and when the appointments are made by ‘Jinn’ [supernatural creatures] instead of by the prime minister, himself, then nothing is shocking when it leads to a laughing stock of the country and its institutions,’ she further stated. “If such important decisions are made this way, then one should say goodbye to this country,” she added.
“If the ‘magic’ is so successful then why isn’t it being used for the welfare of the people? Why the ‘magic’ and the services of ‘Jinn’ are only availed for making important appointments? Instead, why aren’t these be used to reduce burden of inflation from the masses? If this procedure is so successful, then it should be used to bring petrol, diesel, flour, and sugar crises to an end,” she said.
She went on to say that Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to become a “political martyr”, adding: “He will not be allowed to become a political martyr and he has to answer to the injustices done to the people for the last three years.” “It is not a matter of democratic principle; it’s a matter of sticking to power. Now you have put the country on hold. Don’t try to become Nawaz Sharif. Now you have remembered that vote should be respected. You have stolen the mandate of Nawaz Sharif and have become prime minister. One does not simply become a lion by cloaking oneself in the lion’s hide,” she further stated in the context of the ongoing reported differences over the appointment of a new director general ISI.
“Those, who have entered into employment contracts, should stick to the terms of their employment,” she added.
She also questioned the “political identity” of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“Imran Khan’s identity is to conspire against the elected prime minister and to hold a 126-day sit-in. You have nothing to do with discretionary powers given to an elected prime minister, as you are not an elected premier,” she said.
She further alleged that Imran Khan was brought to the power by “undermining the constitution.”
About the NAB’s application in the IHC seeking cancellation of her bail, she said that the language used in the application indicates that they have nothing “concrete” against her to present before the court.
“If you want my bail to be cancelled and send me to jail, then do it, so that the world should see how fearful you are and how you are scared of truth,” she maintained.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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