MANDI BAHAUDDIN – Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday that people attacked in the province should answer violence in the same way, adding that she had personally advised victims to do so.
Speaking at a ceremony in Mandi Bahauddin where scholarships and laptops were handed out under the Hon’haar programme, she warned that anyone found guilty would face action, even if they belonged to her own party.
She also rejected rule by intimidation, saying that fear is not a substitute for governance and that leaders should hold to one principle and apply it consistently.
Recalling a deadly case in Multan in which an orphaned teenager was run over, she said the tragedy still weighed on her mind.
The chief minister also spoke about two other incidents: the abuse of a woman on a motorcycle and an attack at a petrol station.
The first involved video footage from Lahore, in which a man cut off a woman riding a scooty on a busy road, blocked her with his motorbike, and then brutally beat her. Police traced and arrested him using footage and data from dozens of cameras run by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA). A Lahore court, however, directed that he be freed if no other case was pending against him.
In the second case, a man attacked a worker at a filling station in Jubilee Town. Reports say the attendant asked the customer, who had come to fill his tank, not to smoke on the premises. The man then got out of his SUV, allegedly beat the attendant and drove away.
Maryam Nawaz reiterated that her government now stands with the “oppressed”, adding that she is not worried about any case that may be filed against her in future.
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