By Uzma Zafar
Islamabad: PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday said that she had remained “silent” over the past few months due to “personal reasons” but it did not mean that her “resolve had weakened”.
Maryam was responding to questions about her absence from the public eye while speaking to the media in Islamabad alongside PML-N leadership including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and Mariyum Aurangzeb.
“First, if anyone thinks that by putting me in jail without any reason I can be scared or subdued, they should know that my resolve to stand by civilian supremacy and Constitution has strengthened, not weakened,” the former premier’s daughter said.
“My father went abroad for medical treatment and [when he left] his life was in danger. Now he is better than before. I don’t want to cause him pain and do not want him to abandon treatment and return because of me.
“I am under my party’s discipline. Whenever my party leadership, my seniors give me instructions to come forward and play my role, you will not find me lagging behind.” Maryam also negated media reports suggesting that her father and former premier Nawaz Sharif who is currently in London for treatment had refused to go through a medical procedure because she was not by his side. The PML-N vice president cannot travel abroad as her name is on the no-fly list and she was ordered by the Lahore High Court to surrender her passport in order to secure bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills’ case last year.
Last month, PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif had issued a statement saying that Nawaz’s medical procedure had been delayed twice because Maryam could not travel to London.
“Media had reported [Nawaz] as saying that he will not get treatment in Maryam’s absence. This is completely false, he did not say that,” she told reporters in her brief press talk today. “He was hospitalised twice and everything was booked and by chance, both times, my court hearing was scheduled around the time [his procedure was scheduled to take place]. So he said ‘we can wait for a day or two, if Maryam gets permission to travel, I will get the procedure done.
