LAHORE: The controversial ‘Go Nawaz Go’ slogan seems to be getting under the skin of not only Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers but also its leadership.
After the Wazirabad incident earlier in the day, PML-N leader and the prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif have issued a veiled threat to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters and warned them not to mess with the Lions.
Maryam Tweeted on Wednesday evening that PML-N workers have had enough of PTI’s vandalism and PTI supporters would not find a place to hide if PML-N resort responding.
She further Tweeted that PML-N’s policy of restraint and civility must not be misinterpreted as weakness.
Maryam’s tweets came hours after PML-N MPA Tohfiq Butt, irked by ‘Go Nawaz Go’ chants by the protestors in Wazirabad, attacked the hecklers, Express News reported.
Butt was accompanying Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Gujranwala, where the premier was addressing the flood victims of the area.
On their return, flood victims chanted ‘Go Nawaz Go’ at their car, upon which Butt got off the car to beat them up.
“If these bullies chant ‘Go Nawaz Go’ again, we will beat them up with shoes,” Butt said, while addressing the media, following the incident.
Earlier during the All Parties Conference organized by Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), lawyers belonging to PTI started chanting ‘GO Nawaz Go’.
PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also present at the conference. Lawyers of PTI started chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go’ while sending off Qureshi out of the conference hall.
On Tuesday, a fight broke out between two lawmakers from PML-N and PTI during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Communications on Tuesday when a PTI MNA reportedly shouted ‘Go Nawaz, Go’ while the meeting was in progress.
A similar incident happened on September 28 when dozens of hecklers forced federal lawmaker Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to cut short his speech at a World Tourism Day event at the Alhamra hall on Saturday.
They kept chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go’, the rallying cry of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters, during his speech, leaving the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader hot and flustered, Express News reported.
Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has also faced the same fate when during his speech at Preston University on September 24 a student started chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go’.