Verdict on Panama case was announced before trial began: Maryam

LAHORE: Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on Saturday claimed that the verdict on the Panama case was announced before the trial began. 

"Corruption, Panama, and Iqama are all excuses to target Nawaz Sharif," she said while addressing a Traders Convention in Lahore.

Maryam further said she had brought her father’s review petition to the court of he trader community.

"Was it not Nawaz who brought the country out of the power crisis," she said, adding each time her father was handed over a 'broken Pakistan,' her father strengthened it and built it back again. 

The former premier’s daughter claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) was responsible for ‘ending load-shedding,’ and ‘eliminating terrorism.’

She further said though PML-N’s rivals have continued to badmouth Lahore’s progress and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, the party will be victorious in the upcoming election in 2018.

Political debate between PML-N and a prominent contender of the party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continues to intensify with the fast-approaching by-poll in the NA-120 constituency.

The seat fell vacant after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, by the order of the Supreme Court, was disqualified from holding public office. 

PTI's candidate Yasmin Rashid's office in Lahore was attacked by unknown assailants on September 3, as the party marched head on to the NA-120 by-poll with its zealous election campaign. 

Three men opened indiscriminate fire in front of the political offices of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PTI at Neeli Bar Chowk, Islampura, on the second day of Eid.