MANDI BAHAUDDIN (The Thursday Times) — Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday that she had advised victims of recent assaults to respond to their attackers in kind, and warned that offenders would not be spared even if they belonged to her own party.
Speaking at a Honhaar scholarship and laptop distribution ceremony at the University of Rasul in Mandi Bahauddin, the chief minister said the provincial government now stood with the “oppressed” and that no one was above the law, whatever their wealth or political connections.
“Governing through fear is not governance; keep one principle and remain consistent,” she said.
The cases behind the remarks
Maryam referred to a series of incidents that have drawn public anger in recent weeks. In one, captured on video, a man on a motorcycle overtook a woman riding a scooty on a busy road in Lahore, blocked her path and beat her. Police traced and arrested him using footage and data from dozens of cameras run by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, but a Lahore court ordered his release if he was not wanted in any other case.
In another, a man at a petrol pump in Lahore’s Jubilee Town allegedly got out of his SUV and thrashed an attendant who had asked him not to smoke on the premises, before driving off.
She also said a fatal incident in Multan, in which a man ran over an orphaned teenager, still haunted her.
‘Not afraid of cases’
The chief minister complained that suspects in such cases were often granted bail soon after their arrest, and said she was prepared to take the matter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court if needed. She added that she was not worried about any case that might be registered against her in future over her stance.
At the ceremony, Maryam handed out laptops and Honhaar scholarship cheques to students and broke ground on a medical college at the university. She also announced electric bikes and scooters for female students.
