Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Saturday said that Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari did not have political stature to become national leaders as the country cannot be handed over to ‘political infants’. Talking to media in Jhelum, the minister advised them to first contest the election of mayor. “Both [Bilawal and Maryam] do not have political stature to lead the country Bilawal should first contest election of Karachi’s mayor and likewise Maryam needs to run for Lahore’s mayor,” he said.

He said that political novices should vacate their positions for senior leadership of their respective parties. After the defeat of the opposition in the Senate, he said, it was once again proved that all the opposition parties had no political weight against Prime Minister Imran Khan. No leader of all political parties could match the stature of Imran Khan, he added. He said that Pakistan was a democratic country not a monarchy, so heirs of political hierarchies could not ascend to the throne. He said that change was now being discussed within PML-N as its workers want replacement of Sharif family. He said a similar debate should also take place within the PPP to bring experienced leaders at top party slots as if Bilawal and Maryam come up through the political process then they had the right, but there was no justification to impose them on the senior party leaders.

Fawad was of the opinion that the opposition parties had no value inside or outside the Parliament and all their efforts to launch a movement failed in the past and their seventh attempt would be no different.

He said lacking public support, the opposition had to depend on students of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s madrassas as he had an old habit of using them for political purposes but it was not possible to dislodge an elected government through an agitation by students of seminaries. “We have no personal enmity with Maryam Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif, we want to bring back the looted wealth from them as the people want national wealth to be brought back” Fawad maintained. He said that many people meet Nawaz Sharif in expensive apartments but he still had the audacity to claim that apartments were not owned by him. The minister said that Nawaz Sharif’s monthly expenses were tens of millions of rupees but nothing was told about his source of income. Looking at tax returns of Nawaz Sharif, his wealth was illegal money stolen from the nation, he remarked.

He said that British government had rejected Nawaz Sharif’s two applications for visa extension and after realizing the situation, Sharif family had started saying that Nawaz Sharif was coming to Pakistan. “Nawaz Sharif knows that he will not get another chance to stay in UK, he will have to come back,” the minister said. He said that the opposition parties were not sincere with each other and working for their own interests, they might be involved in physical brawls in future. He said that the effort to create political anarchy in the country had failed and the opposition, which had the upper hand in the Senate, failed to block legislative bills moved by the government. The minister said now it had been proved that the government enjoyed majority support not only in the National Assembly but in the Senate as well.

Fawad remarked that PML-N and other opposition parties were in a quandary, as they suffered a humiliating defeat in the Senate on Friday and they would face the same fate in future too.