Staff Reporter
Islamabad
PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz has said her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to the country as soon his treatment is completed and his health is out of danger. Maryam made the remarks after her appearance at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday to attend a hearing of the Avenfield Apartments review petition.
“Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law,” Maryam said, adding that they [the Sharif family] had been buried under accusations.
“Imran Khan used to say if Nawaz went abroad there would no accountability,” she said, adding that the case against her father should have been dismissed after the Arshad Malik case decision by the court. The court after the hearing adjourned the hearing of the Avenfield reference against the Maryam and her husband Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar till September 23, while those filed by Nawaz were adjourned till September 10. Regarding the upcoming APC, she said that “I don’t think he [Nawaz] will tell us not to attend it”.
Referring to the incumbent government, she said that it was reaping what it had sown. “I thought this government would take five years to give such a poor performance. The damage they were expected to do in five years has been done only in two years’ time,” she added.
Maryam Nawaz said that the process of accountability of one person would not affect the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and asked CPEC Chairman and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Lt-Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa to face the allegations against him.
Referring to a recently published investigative news report about alleged offshore properties and businesses of Bajwa and his close family members, Maryam said that the answer to questions raised by the report should not be that it was a “conspiracy against CPEC”.
“If the founder of CPEC [Nawaz Sharif], who brought investment of $60 billion to Pakistan and was removed because of one iqamah and that did not affect the project, then the removal or addition of one person won’t affect CPEC.
“It is the matter of an individual. Allegations have been made against him [Bajwa] and he should answer them.” Maryam said that the evidence against Bajwa was “huge” and called for him to clarify his position in front of the nation.
“If you have been appointed to a government post on taxpayers’ money and allegations are made against you and evidence is presented, you should face them,” she said.
“In our case, it was like making a mountain out of a molehill but still we served punishments thrice. If you have been accused and evidence has been brought, then you should not hesitate to face the law,” she added. “[Imran Khan] used to say that Nawaz has left the country which has weakened his narrative of accountability. Then he used to say that someone has gotten bail [or] someone has been acquitted so his narrative of accountability has weakened.
“I want to question Imran Khan and his government that today, when allegations have been made against Asim Saleem Bajwa with proof, why is his narrative of accountability sleeping? Is there no challenge to his narrative of accountability now?”The PML-N vice president said that everyone was equal under the law and if she and her father could serve jail time for “false cases”, then nobody else could be exempted either.
“If Nawaz Sharif can face the law and serve jail time, if his daughter who is not holding a government post can serve punishments twice, once for six months and the second time for five months and stay in a death cell, if Nawaz Sharif can reach the point of death in jail and surrender to the law then whether it is Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Asim Saleem Bajwa, Mir Sahkilur Rehman, Qazi Faez Isa or Sarina Isa, they are equal in the eyes of the law,” she said. “If Qazi Faez Isa, while being a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, and Nawaz Sharif, a three-time former prime minister, [and] their wives and daughter while not being government employees can face the law then there is no exemption for anyone,” she emphasised.
