Islamabad, Jun 5 (PTI) Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz on Monday accused Imran Khan of cowardice and said the former prime minister hiding from the public will be made an example for everyone.
She addressed a public rally in the Bagh area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) during a visit to the region.
“The person hiding in the bunker will be made an example [for everyone],” she said.
She also condemned Khan for the May 9 attacks and said that a former PoK premier was "testifying against Imran Khan".
She was referring to Sardar Tanvir Ilyas who after being removed from the post of prime minister, has left Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and also blamed Khan for the May 9 violence.
Maryam lashed out at those who desecrated the martyrs' monuments and said such people were not Pakistanis.
Noting that the May 9 incidents brought tears to the “eyes of the heirs of the martyrs”, she said: “Whoever treated the martyrs like this, the nation will not forgive them".
On May 9, violent protests erupted after paramilitary Rangers arrested 70-year-old Khan, the chairman of PTI, from the Islamabad High Court premises in connection with a corruption case.
Khan's party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Lahore Corps Commander House, the Mianwali airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad in response to his arrest.
The mob also stormed the Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi for the first time.
Thousands of Khan’s supporters were arrested following the violence that the powerful Army described as a “dark day” in the history of the country.
The crackdown launched after May 9 violent protests have thrown PTI into a deep existential crisis with dozens of key party leaders quitting the party on a daily basis.
Taking a swipe at the PTI, Maryam said the party has gone back to where it came from, a reference that it was promoted by the powerful establishment and now it is being dismantled by the powers that helped its rise.
“The party which made a plan to end Nawaz Sharif's politics is crumbling. Those who used to say that they will make others cry are crying day and night,” she said.