‘Game over’ for Imran Khan: Maryam Nawaz mocks ex-PM over exodus of senior PTI members

By India Today World Desk: The “game is over” for cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, senior vice president of the PML-N party, Maryam Nawaz said while addressing a convention in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Friday. His statement was made in reference to the exodus of senior members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

During his speech, he also spoke about the 9 May violence in the country, following the arrest of Imran Khan and said that the former Prime Minister of Pakistan masterminded the 9 May “terrorism”, but its workers face anti-terrorism justice.

Since the violence, more than 70 lawyers and senior leaders, including the party’s secretary general, Asad Umar, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari of the PTI have split from the party.

Mocking the PTI for the mass departure of leaders, Maryam said there were queues of people leaving the party.

The exodus of the PTI leaders began when security forces launched an offensive against the party after attacks on civil and military institutions.

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

“Your people are revealing that 70-year-old Imran Khan is the mastermind behind the May 9 incident,” he added.

Furthermore, Maryam said that Imran Khan took his wife, Bushra Bibi, to court covered in sheets, but used other women as a vanguard.

Khan and his wife were covered in white sheets when they arrived at the Lahore High Court on May 15 in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

MAY 9 VIOLENCE IN PAKISTAN

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

Workers from his party vandalized a dozen military facilities, 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 at 10, while Khan’s party says 40 of its workers were killed when shot by security personnel.

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