Daily Times

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Thursday demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation as well as action against him and other members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over a report compiled by the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that she claimed confirmed that the PTI received funding from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds and concealed dozens of its bank accounts.

“The PML-N demands and Pakistan’s opposition demands that Imran Khan immediately resigns [as the prime minister] for lying … taking illegal funds and covering this [act],” she said, further demanding action against the premier and PTI over “misdeclaration, [deliberate] concealment and misstatement,” Maryam told a press conference in Lahore. She said action should also be taken against four of the PTI’s employees named in the ECP’s report for receiving funds in their personal accounts. “There should be an investigation on how much amount was transferred from which company to the [PTI’s] accounts and where it was spent,” she said, also demanding that “all declared and undeclared accounts of the PTI should be made public.”

Maryam called for the formation of a joint investigation team on the matter, demanding that the hearings of the case then be held against Prime Minister Imran on a daily basis, “just like they were held over false allegations against Sharifs”.

Lauding the ECP for releasing the report on the matter “despite pressure from the government to not making it public”, she said the commission now must punish the prime minister according to the law. “Now it is the ECP’s and judiciary’s test, which were very active at the time of the case against Nawaz Sharif,” she remarked. “The nation now wants to see what action these institutions that serve justice take against a person against whom such big allegations have been proved.”

“He [Premier Imran Khan] is responsible for concealment, misdeclaration and misstatement, and so, action should be taken against him and his party. The ball is now in the court of the institutions tasked with ensuring rule of law and people are hoping for them to take action as they did in the case of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif,” Maryam said. “The PTI declared only 4 of its 18 active accounts, out of a total of 26 accounts,” she said, adding, “This isn’t just about lying, but they also made their fullest efforts to sabotage the ECP probe.”

“At first, they tried to pressurise the ECP then they resorted to hurling threats to prevent it from making the report public. When this wasn’t enough, they challenged its jurisdiction and used delaying tactics for the next seven years,” Maryam said, adding that the ruling PTI took funding in the name of the party’s employees, from the US, Middle East, Australia, Canada and England while some of the companies were based in Australia and Canada. “The PTI submitted false and fabricated certificates to the ECP,” she said, adding that PM Imran was the principal signatory of the foreign funding and it was all authorised by him as well as by then PTI leader Arif Alvi. Sharing more details from the report, she continued: “Whatever happened was in Imran Khan’s knowledge … and it happened on his directions.”

Criticising the prime minister for now issuing an explanation on the report, she alleged that “part of illegal foreign funds procured by the PTI was spent on toppling an elected government when Imran Khan was seen on containers.”

Maryam said Pakistan’s law barred parties from being beneficiaries of foreign funding by any company and states that any party doing so be declared a proscribed group. And, she continued, it was for the “first time that I have seen someone, [namely] Imran Khan, calling naked bribery donation”.

Turning her attention to former CJP Nisar, she said: “The nation wants to know why a person who is corrupt to the core was handed the certificate of being sadiq and ameen (honest and righteous).” “I want to ask Saqib Nisar where does your certificate of sadiq and ameen stand today? I want to ask why was the [control of] the country handed over to a person who robbed, lied and covered his and his friends’ sins? Why was the country was left at the mercy of such a person?” she said.

Maryam added, “Imran Khan and the person who gave him the certificate of sadiq and ameen, Saqib Nisar, are responsible for inflation, lawlessness” and other problems faced by the country today. When asked about Nawaz Sharif returning to Pakistan, Maryam said he would surely come back but the PML-N would decide the time of his return.

Maryam Nawaz demanded an apology on Thursday for her phone being “tapped”, as she addressed a reporter’s question pertaining to a leaked audio tape in which she and party leader Pervez Rashid used inappropriate language for certain journalists. “Firstly, an apology should be tendered to me for my phone being tapped. It was my personal and private conversation with Pervez Rasheed sahib. Who had the right to tap my personal conversation?”

She further questioned why was the audio clip given to a certain television channel, and why was it aired. “Firstly, give answers to these questions and apologise to me as well,” she said, without specifying from whom she was demanding the apology. “I want an answer to [the quesiton] on why did you record the conversation of a citizen of Pakistan, a woman,” she remarked, alleging that the clip was given to “government ministers, who gave it to a channel”.

The PML-N leader said she was not answerable to anyone regarding her personal conversations, be it with Rashid or anyone else.

When a reporter referred another leaked audiotape – purportedly of a conversation between former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar and an unidentified man regarding PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Maryam’s trial – and asked whether recording that conversation was fair, she replied: “I did not record it.”

“Nature works in its own ways and things surface,” she said, adding that the former judge’s alleged audio clip could not be compared with “my tapes”.

Maryam elaborated that the tapes attributed to her contained her personal conversations, devoid of any conspiracies. “I did not do anything,” she again clarified. “It all came from there,” without elaborating what she meant by it.