PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Thursday held PTI chief Imran Khan and his “coach” responsible for the recently surfaced audio leaks featuring candid conversations between key figures in the coalition government.
Speaking to reporters outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) after being acquitted in the Avenfield reference, Maryam accepted that four of the clips featured her.
“I know who is doing this all […] Imran and his coach are involved,” she said without elaborating further.
Commenting on the audio in which she purportedly asked Prime Minister Shehbaz to discontinue the PTI’s Sehat Card initiative, Maryam insisted that the health project was launched by PML-N supremo Nawaz.
I had worked hard on the health programme and it was launched by Nawaz Sharif, she claimed.
“I asked the PM to own the programme launched by his party and I never said to discontinue the initiative,” she said.
When asked whether she believed that the “establishment” was responsible for her conviction in the Avenfield case, Maryam instantly responded: “Who was the beneficiary?
“Imran knew he would not be able to come to power if Nawaz remained in the battleground,” she said. She said the PTI chief and his “coaches” would be “finished” in the near future.
In response to another question, Maryam said a nexus comprising “Imran, his coach and a couple of TV channels” were behind the audio leaks.
She also demanded that a “high-powered” joint investigation team (JIT) — consisting of government ministers, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials and law ministry representatives — be formed to probe the alleged audio leak of Imran Khan and his then-principal secretary Azam Khan.
“I believe the facts that have emerged should lead to his [Imran’s] arrest and he must be jailed straightaway,” she said.
