Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday said that the people of PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were living in the stone age, critising the province’s government for not taking steps for development in the age of technology.
Addressing a laptop distribution scheme at a Gujrat university, CM Maryam highlighted that students in Punjab had access to Honhaar scholarships, laptop schemes, Parwaz Card, green buses and technical training programmes.
“So there is Honhaar here, and incitement there, but this is nothing to rejoice about,” she said, adding that she was extremely upset that the “people of KP were still living in the stone age”.
Maryam stated: “They do not know what development is. They do not realise that Honhaar scholarships also exist if one does not have the resources for their child’s studies.
“They do not know that you must have a gadget or a laptop or an iPad or a computer in your hands if you are to meet global standards in today’s age.”
Indirectly noting that the PTI had been in power in KP for the past “13 years”, she said the public there “does not even know what development is”.
The chief minister quipped that the KP government’s response to every need was that it was providing them “awareness”.
Maryam emphasised that blocking major roads in KP did not affect the businesses in Punjab but rather the economic activity of KP itself.
During her address, Maryam also recalled the time when her mother Kulsoom Nawaz was hospitalised due to cancer in 2017 and 2018, as well as when her father and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif was ill during his imprisonment in 2019.
Noting that Nawaz was in his 70s when he was jailed, the Punjab CM said, “He got sick after multiple heart attacks and his platelets dropped. He had cardiac pain [but] such a joke was made out of his ailment.”
She continued: “When my father and I were in jail, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and her disease was ridiculed so much; it was even said that she was not sick and it is all a drama.”
Maryam then recalled that Kulsoom was on a ventilator in a London hospital when certain individuals “entered the ICU through deception by wearing doctors’ uniforms to verify whether it was true or false”.
“When my mother passed away, my father said, ‘One has to die to prove their innocence here’,” she said, adding that she was in a jail cell when Nawaz informed her about Kulsoom’s death.
The PML-N leader then played some old video clips of ex-premier Imran Khan from when he was in power. In the clips, the PTI founder threatened to get the TV and air conditioner removed from the prisons of the PML-N leadership.
Maryam asserted: “I am swearing by God that till today, neither I nor Nawaz Sharif or Shehbaz Sharif even thought of removing his AC or shutting off his food and TV.
“In fact, Nawaz Sharif said one day that he (Imran) has one AC, give him two ACs as he should not face any problems.”
She further said she was the “first woman” to be locked in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) jail and a cell had to be vacated for her as they did not have a dedicated women’s prison.
The Punjab CM then played another video of ex-PM Imran, wherein he commented on the “long list” of health issues Nawaz was facing.
“You can have differences on policies and policies, but you cannot turn political disagreements into personal enmities,” Maryam emphasised.
“My children, you must never do this,” she told the audience, referring to the actions taken by the PTI government of jailing PML-N leadership and “making fun” of the ailments.
“The time circles back, but my father was telling me at dinner the other day to never wish bad for even one’s political opponents,” she said.
“You all must not do what he or his party is doing,” the politician stressed. “Those who are ill, we pray that God may give them recovery soon,” she added.
Speaking on Imran’s current health issues, Maryam said, “The kind of facilities and the doctors he needs are being provided to him, and I am telling you this on oath that no one wishes ill for him.”
She called for lies, accusations, incitement, vandalism and fitna to be “thrown out” of politics.
