LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) says it will take legal action against PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz for what it calls her ‘controversial’ social media campaign accusing PTI Chairman Imran Khan of blasphemy that may endanger his life.

Maryam Nawaz on Monday uploaded two purported statements of Imran Khan and as many verses of Quran on her Twitter account to draw comparison between them. She also tweeted saying: “This man (Imran) is using religion for his politics and promoting his false narrative. Save your faith and the country from this satan.”

According to the PTI, after Maryam’s tweet, a trend on Twitter against Imran Khan accusing him of blasphemy followed with over 65,000 tweets targeting the PTI chairman. There were also tweets critical of Ms Nawaz suggesting her not to drag religion into politics that might endanger someone’s life.

“We will not let this matter go unnoticed. Legal action will be taken against Maryam Nawaz for using the tool of blasphemy to endanger the life of the PTI chairman,” PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry declared.

In a talk with Dawn on Monday, Mr Chaudhry said: “The coalition government is probably the only government that is using blasphemy laws against political opponents blatantly. Using religion cards is the most blatant attempt to physically eliminate political opponents and Maryam Nawaz and Fazlur Rehnan are creating this web to physically eliminate Imran Khan.”

He said Maryam Nawaz was behind such trends on the social media.

Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal chided the ousted premier asking for a licence given to Imran Khan for speaking whatever came to his mind.

“This man does not care while speaking on religious matters and often insults religious signs like he does in the case of his political opponents,” Iqbal said in a tweet and added self love, selfishness and ignorance had made Imran’s mind numb.

Federal Information Minister Marriyum Auranzeb said in a tweet that Imran Khan was a narcissist and such a person was dangerous (for the country).

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2022