Maryam Nawaz warns Imran Khan-led PTI against stopping PML-N in PoK polls

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz recently warned Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that any attempt to stop her party in the upcoming Kashmir elections would be dealt with severely. While addressing a rally in Islamgarh, Maryam, who is the daughter of party supremo Nawaz Sharif, said that people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have already ruled in favour of PML-N. She even went on to say that her party candidates have already won the election. 

“The clear evidence of this is that by holding a rally here in such heat, my throat has dehydrated and you are standing for me in a temperature of 40 degrees [Celsius],” Maryam added. 

Further, the PML-N vice president said that the opponents were watching the election campaign of the party in PoK and were distressed about it. "The PTI is greeted with rotten eggs and shoes [wherever it goes]," Maryam said, adding that the PML-N was no longer the party that it was in 2018. She maintained that PML-N is a party that “catches ‘vote thieves’ and finds votes in the fog”. 

“This is not 2018 in which you blocked the Result Transmission System (RTS). If you steal the PoK elections from us, Kashmiris will not spare you,” Maryam said. 

PoK elections

Maryam’s comments come as several major parties in Pakistan are rallying to emerge victorious in the Kashmir polls. The PML-N supremo had decided to put Maryam at the forefront of the election campaign instead of his brother and party president Shehbaz Sharif. It is worth noting that the Kashmir elections will be held on July 25 in a bid to elect 45 representatives of the legislative assembly. 

Meanwhile, During a rally of the PTI in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Saturday, Pakistan PM Imran Khan said, “No country can become a dignified nation when it keeps relying on aid”. Galvanizing support ahead of the general elections in the region, Imran Khan said that Pakistan was on a path that would one day help it support other nations than 'begging for financial assistance" itself. He added that the country had become accustomed to seeking financial aid since it never thought of becoming self-reliant.

(With inputs from ANI)