F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Disgruntled PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that Maryam Nawaz’s sharp tongue was pushing the party into a narrow alley.
The veteran politician, who has been associated with the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) for over three decades, was reacting to an earlier statement by the party supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam.
“I have been forced to give a response to the terms used and poetry recited by Mian Nawaz Sharif yesterday and his daughter’s statement,” Nisar said in a statement released on Thursday evening, adding that he had exercised a lot of patience and tolerance in the situations and circumstances that had arisen in the past year.
“Mian sb man can do no favours for mankind, only God can.”
“If you [Nawaz] granted favours to people, many people must have also done the same to you,” he said. “You should be aware of that and be grateful for it.”
“I have tried not to give any reaction that may harm the party,” he said.
Discussing a change in his political direction, Nisar said that he had parted ways with national politics to a large extent, to limit himself to his constituency’s politics.
“But I am sad to say that I have been targetted in various ways in the past eight to ten months from a certain direction.”
“When nothing else chalked out, some favoured journalists were given preplanned questions, the answers to which were apparent insults directed at me,” wrote Nisar.
“The evident pawn of [these attacks] was a person who neither has an ideological nor political relationship with the party,” he said. “But a puppet never dances on its own.”
The former interior minister said he still respects the [Sharif] family to this day. However, he quoted a verse from a poem, the gist of which is that a person who can listen may also speak but respect may be the only thing restraining them from doing so.
Nisar’s words, however, were accompanied by a warning.
“I have imposed a restriction on myself only for today’s statement,” he wrote. “If puppets and pawns continue to level allegations against me, I reserve the right to issue a detailed clarification.”
The falling out
Rumours of a rift between Nisar and Nawaz have been rife after the former took an opposing stance on the party’s political strategy following the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict that ousted Nawaz from holding public office although the two leaders have refrained from discussing the changing dynamics of their relationship with the media until recently.
