GUJRANWALA: Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Imran Khan, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Sunday said that “he is a coward” and the Opposition will “not let him run away.”

Addressing a press conference flanked by the Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz in Gujranwala, minutes before of the premier’s address to a jalsa in Islamabad, she said, Imran Khan will be held accountable for using taxpayers’ money on public gatherings and criticised him for capitalising on the religious card to gain political mileage.

“This money was not your family’s. This was the hard-earned money of the people of Pakistan which you splurged on holding public rallies,” she said while lashing out at the premier.

Maryam added that the premier “deprived people of food, while inflation reached the highest levels in the country.”

She also lashed out at him for abusing the Opposition leaders and delaying voting on the no-trust motion, adding that when the premier was held accountable for his misdoings related to the foreign funding case, he used “every means to save himself.”

Taking a jibe at PTI’s ongoing jalsa in Islamabad, where the party had claimed to gather more than one million people in support of PM Imran Khan, Maryam said: “Your jalsa is titled Amr-bil-Maroof (enjoining good). Is snatching bread, flour, electricity, and sugar from the masses called Amr-bil-Maroof?”

“Is misbehaving with people [opposition leaders] and calling them names Amr-bil-Maroof?” she questioned.

Maryam also called the premier out for referring to Maulana Fazlur Rehman as “diesel” repeatedly and said: “Considering the rising pieces of diesel during Imran Khan’s tenure, he should, indeed, be labelled diesel instead.”

The PML-N Vice-President, while talking about the decision of the National Assembly’s speaker to delay the no-confidence motion session, said that Imran Khan is “violating the Constitution through the speaker.”

Favouring her uncle and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam said that he is “a thousand times better than Imran Khan”.

“How can you compare yourself with Shahbaz? When there were floods in Pakistan, he used to visit places while submerged knee-deep in the stagnant water,” she said.

She also talked about the disgruntled PTI MNAs who had decided to jump ships ahead of the no-confidence motion against the premier.

“Your own party members do not trust you, which has resulted in the no-confidence motion,” Maram said. “Your party has broken up and your companions who used to run your kitchen have lost trust in you.”

Maryam further added that if the premier believes Nawaz Sharif is hatching conspiracies against him all the time and is controlling all the affairs of Pakistan while living in London, then he should be “ashamed of his [governance skills].”

“If you think Nawaz is in the driver’s seat regarding Pakistan’s affairs, you should resign and go home.”

‘Aapki kanpain taang rahi hain’: Hamza Shahbaz to PM

For his part, Hamza Shahbaz said that PM Imran Khan’s “rhetoric of Naya Pakistan was nothing but a spectacle.”

The PML-N leader also said that his party “does not believe in the umpire but believes in the people of Pakistan.”

He claimed that when the 2018 elections were “stolen,” PML-N was the biggest party in Punjab at the time.

“I have been receiving reports related to the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly already,” Hamza said. “This clearly indicates that ‘aapki ki kaapain taang rahi hain (the government’s legs are trembling)'”.