Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz addressed the launching ceremony of the ‘Suthra Punjab’ Programme on November 3, referring to the recent violent PTI protests: “These are dangerous people, a group of terrorists who should be eliminated from Pakistan.”
Lashing out at PTI for its November 24 “final call” march towards Islamabad, Maryam Nawaz stated: “Each time they called for people to come out, to kill, burn, or destroy, they were met with failure. No one showed up in Punjab, and I didn’t see more than a couple of dozen people at any of their rallies.”
The Chief Minister also claimed that PTI’s protest had no participants from Punjab, saying, “When I held protests and rallies, people came out and no one could stop them. Today, they claim we didn’t allow them rallies, but during our time, we never broke a single flowerpot, nor did anyone from our party damage property.”
It should be noted that ahead of the PTI’s protest, the entire motorway network and roads across the country were blocked by the government. Interestingly, the social media page of Pakistan’s National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) stated that certain sections of the motorway were closed due to “maintenance work.”
The Chief Minister also highlighted that peaceful protest is a right, saying, “Protests are allowed, but they should not be armed, and people should come forward for talks, not violence.”
“I went to CMH and saw dozens of police and Rangers personnel injured, their bones were broken. Do you call this a public protest? The mastermind of the protest is sitting in jail,” stated the CM Punjab.
Maryam Nawaz said, “We have also served prison sentences! But has anyone ever heard that our call for protest was made to burn, kill, or shut down the city? Did Nawaz Sharif ever say, burn down the country if I am in jail?”
“I have a responsibility to protect the public from terrorism and fitnah. They are not allowed to play openly right now, think if they get permission to play openly, they’ll shed rivers of blood, and burn the entire country because there is no red line for them,” remarked Maryam Nawaz.
She also criticised PTI for allegedly spreading fake news about the number of casualties of PTI protestors saying, “The number went down from 1000 to 500. Where are the dead 500 protestors? They had a video of Bushra Bibi escaping the authorities but they could not show the video of 500 dead protestors? Let me make one thing clear: whether five hundred people die or one dies, whether it is the protestor or a Ranger who dies – the man responsible is one sitting in Adiala Jail.”