LAHORE: PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday announced launch of protest rallies across the country from July 21 for justice for her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, rule of law and freedom of expression.

“Insha Allah I shall be leading protest rallies across Pakistan that will not only ask for justice for Nawaz Sharif but demand rule of law, freedom of expression, end to manipulation of the entire system to punish public representatives, stealing people’s mandate, imposition of the selected,” said Maryam on Twitter.

She said every Pakistani who wished to live in a free, democratic and just Pakistan must join (her campaign).

Talking to Dawn, PML-N information secretary Marriyum Auranzeb said Marayam Bibi would lead protest rallies from Faisalabad on coming Sunday. “The people of Pakistan will come out for rule of law. There has been no legal and moral justification to keep Nawaz Sharif in jail after the removal of the accountability judge (Arshad Malik) for his confession that he had been ‘pressurised and blackmailed’ to convict the former premier in the Al-Azizia reference,” she said.

To a question about media censorship regarding the coverage of Maryam Nawaz’s rallies, Ms Auranzeb said: “Even the Imran Khan government shuts the whole country out of fear of her taking to streets, she will lead huge rallies.”

On July 7, Maryam had led a rally from Jati Umra Lahore to Mandi Bahauddin on whose coverage the PML-N said some of the private news channels were blocked.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2019