‘Game is over’ for cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan: Maryam Nawaz

Islamabad, May 27 (PTI) Maryam Nawaz, Senior Vice President of PML-N party, has told Imran Khan that the “game is over” for the cricketer-turned-politician following an exodus of his party’s senior members.

Maryam made these remarks on Friday while addressing a convention in Pakistan’s Punjab province. During her address, she also talked about the incidents on May 9 the day on which the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief Khan was arrested, triggering violent protests countrywide.

Maryam, the 49-year-old daughter of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, told PTI Chairman Khan that the “game is over” following an exodus of his party’s senior members.

Over 70 lawyers and leaders from the party have parted ways with the PTI so for following the May 9 mayhem. Top PTI leaders – including the party’s Secretary General Asad Umar, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and former minister for human rights Shireen Mazari – have resigned.

Taking a jibe at the PTI over leaders’ mass departure, Maryam said that there were ques of those quitting the party.

The PTI leaders’ exodus started when the security forces launched a crackdown against the party following the attacks on the civil and military institutions.

“How will the people stand when the leader himself is a jackal?” she criticised the former prime minister, who was removed from office via a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly in April last year.

“Your people are revealing that Imran Khan, 70, is the mastermind of May 9 (incidents)” she added.

The PML-N senior vice president said that Khan was the mastermind of the May 9 “terrorism” but his workers are facing anti-terrorism court.

She said that Khan took his wife, Bushra Bibi, to court covered with sheets but he used other women as vanguards. Khan and his wife were covered with white sheets as they arrived at the Lahore High Court on May 15 in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

Maryam said that the May 9 incident was an “attack on Pakistan Army”, adding that the former premier was being assisted by his “facilitators”.

On May 9, violent protests erupted after paramilitary Rangers arrested Khan from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) premises.

His party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Lahore Corps Commander’s House, the Mianwali airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad in response to Khan’s arrest.

The mob also stormed the Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi for the first time.

Police put the death toll in violent clashes to 10 while Khan’s party claims 40 of its workers lost their lives in the firing by security personnel.

Thousands of Khan’s supporters were arrested following the violence that the powerful Army described as a “dark day” in the history of the country.