Staff Reporter
Islamabad
PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday said that she had remained “silent” over the past few months due to “personal reasons” but it did not mean that her resolve had weakened.
Maryam was responding to questions about her absence from the public eye while speaking to the media in Islamabad alongside PML-N leadership including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and Marriyum Aurangzeb.
“First, if anyone thinks that by putting me in jail without any reason I can be scared or subdued, they should know that my resolve to stand by civilian supremacy and Constitution has strengthened, not weakened,” the former premier’s daughter said.
“My father went abroad for medical treatment and [when he left] his life was in danger. Now he is better than before. I don’t want to cause him pain and do not want him to abandon treatment and return because of me.
“I am under my party’s discipline. Whenever my party leadership, my seniors give me instructions to come forward and play my role, you will not find me lagging behind.”
Maryam, who had been politically active since 2017 when Nawaz was disqualified as prime minister and was vocal about her opposition to the PTI’s government, has remained silent since her arrest in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption case in August 2019.
Maryam also negated media reports suggesting that her father and former premier Nawaz Sharif had refused to go through a medical procedure because she was not by his side. The PML-N vice president cannot travel abroad as her name is on the no-fly list and she was ordered by the Lahore High Court to surrender her passport in order to secure bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills’ case last year.