by Amir Wasim in Dawn, November 13th, 2020
• Vows not to have secret dialogue with anyone
• Claims establishment contacted ‘people around her’
• PPP sees BBC interview as outcome of ‘ongoing rethinking process’ within PML-N
• PTI terms it ‘face-saving move’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday showed her party’s readiness to hold talks with the army, but with certain conditions, including packing up of the present Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.
“Army is my institution. We will definitely talk with it, but within the limits of the Constitution and within the limits prescribed by the Constitution,” she said while outlining her conditions for the talks with the military establishment during an exclusive interview with BBC Urdu conducted in Gilgit where she has been staying for the past few days in connection with her party’s campaign for the upcoming elections in Gilgit-Baltistan scheduled for Nov 15.
“And these talks will be held in front of the public. No secret talks will be held with anyone,” she said when put a direct question if she was ready to hold talks with the army.
Putting the same question differently, the interviewer asked if her party would sit together with the army for the sake of bringing the country out of crises, she categorically declared that “if you want to bring the country out of the crises, then [Prime Minister] Imran Khan and his government will have to first go home”.
Ms Nawaz, who is the daughter of PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, said she was not “against the institution, but if “we are to move forward, the selected government will have to go”.
“Dialogue will be held with the people of Pakistan only and it is already going on so well that the forces and the fake government are frustrated so much that they don’t know how to respond and they are committing such blunders that the mind is shocked,” she said, adding that the people of Pakistan were the “real stakeholders”.
Terming the present government an “absolute failure” at every front, she said: “There is so much pressure coming from the public that even the selectors have been forced to respond.”
Replying to a question, Ms Nawaz claimed that the military establishment had contacted “some people” around her, but said nobody had directly approached her.
When asked if “minus-Imran government” would be acceptable to her, she said they would look into it when the time came for it. She, however, termed it a “sin” to hold talks with the incumbent government.
In response to another question, Ms Nawaz said PML-N’s politics was not headed towards a dead end. Instead, she continued, the ones going towards a dead end were those who had tried to make this temporary [government].
“Wherever we are going, whether it is Gujranwala, Karachi, Quetta or Gilgit-Baltistan, only one narrative is echoing: vote ko izzat do (honour the vote) and riyasat ke upar riyasat mat banao (do not make a state above the state),” she added.
With regards to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Bilawal’s remarks that he was waiting for Nawaz Sharif to bring forth evidence of his claims that the army interfered in elections, the PML-N vice president added that her father had said the words but the evidence was in front of the public.
“The reality of [former judge] Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, judge Arshad Malik and Dawnleaks is in front of you,” she said.
Ms Nawaz said the whole world listened to a sitting judge of the Islamabad High Court disclosing as to how he was being pressurised for not granting bail to Nawaz Sharif and her. “When you do not extend the tenure of [an army] chief, they start talking about something based on falsehood such as Dawnleaks.”
Ms Nawaz refused to comment when asked about her party’s decision to support the bill seeking extension of the present army chief, saying the reality behind it would soon be in front of the public.
She emphasised that both the PML-N and PPP had their own stance and her party’s stance was clarified by Nawaz Sharif.
Regarding the recent inquiry report on the alleged kidnapping of the Sindh inspector general of police in order to force him to sign the arrest warrant for her husband, retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, she said it had raised more questions in the minds of the public.
“You are telling the people that some overzealous officers did this under pressure from public reaction. What public reaction was there? Those fake people who registered the case and then ran away, those three, four people are what you call public pressure?” she was quoted to have stated by BBC Urdu on its official website. The website also quoted her saying that they could consider holding talks with the establishment from the platform of the Pakistan Democratic Movement.
Ms Nawaz said that according to the Constitution, it was not the job of the institutions to give a reply to public reaction but the government’s.
“The responsibility of institutions is to fulfil their professional responsibilities, not show overzealousness. Their work is not emotions but fulfilling their constitutional and professional obligations. If someone did in fact do this out of emotions, then it is a huge moment of reflection for the institution and Pakistan,” she said.
However, she said she “did not believe that such a thing happened. I believe some junior officers were sacrificed. It is very sad”.
“Therefore, I consider any alliance with PTI equivalent to forgiving them which is not fair. I think it is time for their accountability not for an alliance with them now that they have been weakened,” she added.
PPP reaction
A senior PPP office-bearer, while talking to Dawn on condition of anonymity, said it seemed that a “rethinking process” was currently under way within the PML-N over its “extreme anti-establishment narrative”. The PPP leader refused to further talk on the contents of the interview, saying both the parties were presently tolerating each other as “we do not want to have a break-up at a time when we are running together a campaign against the government”.
When contacted to seek official comment, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said he would only be able to comment on it after discussing the matter with party chairman Bhutto-Zardari.
PTI reaction
Commenting on the BBC interview, Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan termed Maryam Nawaz “irrelevant woman” and said the latter was trying to become relevant by offering an olive branch while hinting that her party was open for dialogue with the army overtly.
Speaking at a press conference in Lahore, Dr Awan said Ms Nawaz was regretting her narrative against the army and wanted face-saving from the tirade she had launched against the state institutions. She said Ms Nawaz was busy in hatching conspiracies by creating controversies and misunderstandings among the state institutions until now.
Dr Awan said Ms Nawaz’s irresponsible statements were becoming instrumental to destabilise the country and suggested that she do politics and criticise only the political government, instead of targeting the state institutions.
“Maryam Nawaz has finally become disappointed after realising that neither the incumbent PTI government nor the state institutions will be blackmailed,” she said. www.dawn.com/news/1590130/talks-with-army-only-after-govts-ouster-says-maryam
