Daily Times

Lahore: A series of tweets posted by Tehmina Durrani on Wednesday against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to proceed with the GT Road rally pointed to possible rifts within the Sharif family, though the wife of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif indicated otherwise.

Durrani took to the popular social media platform highlighting elder Sharif’s ‘callous’ attitude in putting his younger brother in a position where he is responsible ‘protecting and assisting his own party’s rally.

Opposing the former PM’s decision to lead the rally to Lahore, Durrani said he should have just addressed the nation instead of “putting such a loyal brother into a contradictory position”.

Durrani also prayed for the former PM’s safe journey to Lahore, asking Nawaz Sharif to fire all his advisers upon his arrival in Lahore. She said his advisers had misled him into proceeding with the rally and that they were incompetent.

Explaining the reason for her opposition to the rally, Durrani said Shehbaz Sharif shouldn’t have been burdened with the responsibility of assisting the rally, because it was in conflict with his authority as the CM.

She also mentioned that commuters had been inconvenienced because of the rally, saying that ‘no government has the authority to shut a busy road … for three days, unless it is for repair work’.

In one of her tweets, Durrani stated that there was no rift in the Sharif family. But in the same post, she continued to express her resentment over the rally. She said, “I speak (for) freedom. CM responsible to save the day is a ruthless and uncaring demand on him.”

Published in Daily Times, August 10^th 2017.