Is demanding respect for vote treason? Maryam Nawaz asks Buner

BUNER: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz on Monday said that her father, former premier Nawaz Sharif, is now being termed a traitor after opponents failed to curtail the popularity of his “narrative demanding respect for vote”, ARY News reported.

“They disqualified him for life, then removed from party leadership.. but as all these moves failed to diminish his popularity among the masses, they are now using the treason card (against Nawaz Sharif),” said Maryam during a party rally in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

She asked the crowd whether they think Nawaz Sharif is a “traitor”, upon which the party workers cried “No”.

“The thing is simple, do you want respect for your vote or not? the power of vote is people power, your power; your elected leaders are being branded traitors… are only elected leaders traitor?” she asked the crowd.

Maryam Nawaz lamented that her father, three time PM Nawaz Sharif, braved all threats and rejected foreign aid for May 28 nuclear tests but is now being termed traitor.

“Can a man like Nawaz, who presented the Kashmir issue at UN, paid tribute to Burhan Wani Saheed be termed a traitor?,” asked Maryam Nawaz.

She also claimed that her father took all the blame for the 1999 Kargil war for her country’s valiant soldiers despite the fact that then army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf had initiated the war without his knowledge but is still being called a traitor.

It is pertinent to note here that PML-N’s lifelong leader and three time PM Nawaz Sharif’s  ‘Mumbai attacks’ comments during an interview to a local newspaper have triggered a flood of criticism from analysts, politicians and general public in Pakistan.

Former PM and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s lifelong leader, in an interview with a leading English daily, said that “militant organisations are active” in Pakistan and asked the interviewer if the state should allow them to cross the border and “kill 150 people in Mumbai”.