Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said that dinner hosted by Shehbaz Sharif was not mandated by or for the opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
Talking to media in Islamabad on Tuesday, she said the PML-N president hosted the dinner as leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. It was not a dinner of the PDM as Shehbaz Sharif has no portfolio in the alliance, Maryam added.
The dinner was for the planning of coming budget session as the opposition wanted to rid the masses of the inflation caused by the PTI government.
When a journalist asked her why she did not attend the dinner, she told him not to make the event controversial. “I am not a parliamentarian. Shehbaz Sharif hosted dinner for parliamentarians as opposition leader. So, I don’t need to be there,” she maintained.
Maryam said that the PDM had decided that a meeting would be held after Ramzan in which the future course of action would be decided. The meeting would be called in a couple of days, she added.
About a no-confidence motion in the Punjab, she said that “we have more people than the required.”
Regarding the PDM show cause notice to the PPP, the PML-N vice president said the party has not yet explained its position. The PDM would consider whenever the PPP would file a reply and take a decision. But the PML-N and PDM have the same opinion on the issue, she continued.
Maryam supported Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s offer to resign as general secretary of the PDM if the PPP wanted him to do so for rejoining the alliance. “I and Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman are on the same page in this regard,” she said.
She rejected the government’s claim on the GDP growth as “a pack of lies.”
Replying to a question, she said that cases against her “are political victimisation.”
