Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday that she had been dragged into the corruption cases filed against the Sharif family to put pressure on her father, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

She was addressing a press conference at Punjab House, Islamabad.

Maryam has been named as one of the accused in the Avenfield properties reference, which is among the three references filed against the Sharif family by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following last year’s Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case.

The PML-N leader said her name had not been mentioned in the April 2017 verdict of the Supreme Court but she was later implicated in the matter by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

“The reason I was implicated in the matter is rooted in the ‘will teach you a lesson’ mindset that has targeted those who stand up to injustice and question the practice of bringing elected Prime Ministers to their knees,” she said, while reading out her statement, adding that religious beliefs, the issue of corruption and the catchphrase of treason were all used pretexts for the purpose.

She said those who refused to accept excesses, stood up to injustices and dared ask questions about the rotten state of affairs had always been threatened, harassed and victimised in the country.

Reading out the second part of her statement, Maryam said, “I, like my father, know why I was named in this case. I am not involved in any corrupt practice or any theft.”

The former premier’s daughter said, “I have appeared before the court more than 70 times and the case is still going on. I know why I am being kept away from my mother who is suffering from cancer and I also know that in Pakistan’s 70-year history no woman has ever appeared before the court these many times.”

“My only fault is that I am Nawaz Sharif’s daughter. My only fault is that I like other brave women of this country and stand firmly with my father. My only fault is that I think my father is right,” she said, adding that she was named in the case to put pressure on her father. “They are aware of the sensitive relationship between a father and daughter. They named me in the case to make my father cower before them.”

She continued, “Nawaz Sharif refused to surrender before any hardship, refused to resign when guns took aim at him, he refused the whole world’s pressure and made Pakistan a nuclear power and he is the one who bravely suffered every atrocity committed against him by Pervez Musharraf.

“They knew that when a case would be formed against his [Nawaz’s] daughter and she will be dragged to court, like any other father, he would succumb to the pressure than watch his daughter go through the ordeal.”

However, she said, “The people who think like this neither know Nawaz Sharif nor his daughter. My father is struggling for the welfare of the people of Pakistan and to protect their right to vote and democracy.”

“I am my father’s strength not his weakness,” Maryam said, while vowing that she will not let her “father’s head bow down”.

At the last hearing of the accountability court on Monday, Maryam had denied that she was a beneficial owner of the London flats and the offshore companies, Nielsen and Nescoll. She said she never took any financial advantage from the companies. She also denied having anything to do with the Gulf Steel Mills, the Al-Taufiq case, or the settlement worth Rs12 million.

Responding to the PML-N leader’s press conference, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry said that Nawaz Sharif was under trial owing to his children’s greed to gather money. “Maryam is not in court because of Nawaz, but Nawaz is in court because of her. Nawaz’s children kept Rs300 billion in foreign accounts and it is their greed that has brought him to court.

His [Nawaz] children crossed all limits of gathering money which is why the whole family is facing trials today,” the PTI leader continued.

Fawad added that Maryam was being made to appear before court because she and her father allegedly embezzled money from the national exchequer.

Published in Daily Times, May 30^th 2018.