Maryam Nawaz slams Imran Khan for using women as a shield

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Saturday censured Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for "hiding in a bunker" and using "women as a shield", media reports said.

The PML-N scion, during an informal discussion with journalists in Lahore, spoke about the PTI chief hiding inside a burrow and avoiding appearing in courts - in reference to the ex-Prime Minister residing at his Lahore residence and not appearing before the judges despite being repeatedly ordered to do so, Geo News reported.

Khan - the country's deposed Prime Minister whose government was ousted after a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly in April last year - on Friday announced kickstarting his party's 'Jail Bharo' (court arrest) movement from February 17, starting from Lahore.

The PTI Chairman's decision comes as he blames the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led coalition government for resorting to "political victimisation" of his party's leaders.

"We will fill jails, they [authorities] will have no space left to hide," Khan said in his address to the nation via video link a day earlier.

"Imran Khan [came into power] through the establishment's support and is now trying to use the judiciary. His deeds are about to be exposed," Maryam said while also slamming the PTI chief for not leaving the "bunker", Geo News reported.

The senior PML-N leader added that the PTI chief drafted a 12-year plan to rule the country; however, his plans were thwarted by her party's supremo Nawaz Sharif.

"Imran Khan wanted to make the next appointment, but could not do so," she said in an apparent reference to the army chief's appointment. "Nawaz Sharif did not panic and his [Khan's] plan failed," she claimed. (KB/IANS)