PML-N ticket worked its magic: Maryam Nawaz
Islamabad: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Sharif said this week that PTI lawmakers voted for PDM’s Yousuf Raza Gillani in the Senate election after her party promised them tickets in the next elections.
Several PTI ministers claimed that opposition parties used money to buy votes for Gillani. The PDM candidate defeated the ruling party’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh by five votes to win the Islamabad Senate seat.
“Money didn’t work but PML-N’s tickets did,” Maryam said, responding to the accusations at a party convention in Islamabad. “You used to say that his (Nawaz’s) politics has ended [but] today people voted for PML-N and PDM’s candidate in the Senate after promise of a PML-N ticket.”
Maryam told workers that she was grateful to them for being disciplined and voting for Gillani in the Senate election.
She spoke of her father’s explosive speech in Gujranwala last year, saying it changed the political landscape of Pakistan.
“If there is one man who deserves credit for changing Pakistan’s political landscape, his name is Nawaz Sharif,” Maryam said.
“Remember when Nawaz Sharif delivered a speech in Gujranwala, many of our party workers were stunned and kept looking at each other. They didn’t understand what Mian sahib said,” she said.
“But remember, had Mian sahib not shown courage and held the flag high, there would have been no one to raise the slogan of democracy and vote ko izzat do.”
The PML-N leader said Nawaz relied on people’s power and he won. Imran Khan lost because he relied on “one page”, Maryam said, referring to PM Khan’s cordial ties with the military leadership.
“You can’t even win a Senate seat on your own,” Maryam told the premier.