‘Game over’ for Imran Khan: Maryam Nawaz takes jibe at ex-PM over exodus of senior members from PTI

The “game is over” for cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, Senior Vice President of PML-N party, Maryam Nawaz said while addressing a convention in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Friday.

Her statement came in reference to the exodus of senior members from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

During her address, she also talked about the May 9 violence in the country, following the arrest of Imran Khan and said the former Pakistan prime minister was the mastermind of the May 9 “terrorism” but his workers are facing anti-terrorism court.

Since the violence, more than 70 lawyers and top leaders, including the party’s Secretary General Asad Umar, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and former minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari, of the PTI have parted ways from the party.

Taking a jibe at the PTI over the leaders’ mass departure, Maryam said that there were queues of those quitting the party.

The PTI leaders’ exodus started when the security forces launched a crackdown against the party following the attacks on civil and military institutions.

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

“Your people are revealing that Imran Khan, 70, is the mastermind of the May 9 incident,” she added.

Further, Maryam said Imran Khan took his wife, Bushra Bibi, to court covered with sheets but he used other women as vanguards.

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

MAY 9 PAKISTAN VIOLENCE

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

His party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, 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 to 10, while Khan’s party claims 40 of its workers lost their lives in the firing by security personnel.

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.