Daily Times

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz said on Wednesday that it was high time that the mandate of the Pakistani electorate was respected. She was speaking to a private TV channel.

The PML-N leader said the time when conspiracies could be hatched for delaying elections was past now. “The nation is awake and the people are aware now,” she said, claiming that the PML-N would return to power in centre as well as in the province in the upcoming general elections.

“I urge all voters to come out and vote. It’s now or never,” she said, “I pray to God that we are successful in our ‘respect for vote’ movement.”

Maryam said she had come out for the nation and to ensure the respect of the vote. “May Allah protect the country from different diseases,” she added. While drawing comparisons between her father Nawaz Sharif and General (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf, she said there is a vast difference between the way Nawaz and the dictator are being treated. “The dictator has been granted freedom, while a three-time PM has been humiliated time and again.”

Meanwhile, a returning officer on Wednesday reserved verdict on objections raised on Maryam’s nomination papers.

The objections have been raised by PTI candidate for NA-125, Yasmin Rasheed.

The RO reserved the decision after Maryam appeared in the court for the scrutiny process. During arguments on the appeal filed by the PTI leader, Maryam’s counsel Pervez Malik contended that that all facts had been disclosed in the nomination papers. He said Maryam was a regular taxpayer and PTI’s Rasheed needed to provide evidence before the court to substantiate her claims.

In her appeal, Rasheed had raised 21 objections against Maryam’s candidature, including those related to her nomination in the three accountability references against the Sharif family. Addressing the media outside the court, Maryam said she would be celebrating Eid in London, with her ailing mother Kulsoom Nawaz.

Maryam said those targeting Nawaz Sharif were following a failed script.

On the SC verdict in Sheikh Rasheed’s disqualification case, she said she had not even bothered to hear the verdict. “The whole nation had predicted what would happen. What’s the use of hearing a verdict when you already know what it is going to be.”

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination papers were approved on Wednesday. A list of all successful candidates will be released on June 19.

Published in Daily Times, June 14^th 2018.