GUJRAT (MNN); Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday criticized the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), saying that the province’s people were “living in the stone age” due to lack of development efforts in today’s technological era.
Addressing a laptop distribution event at a university in Gujrat, Maryam Nawaz highlighted various initiatives in Punjab, including Honhaar scholarships, laptop schemes, Parwaz Card, green buses, and technical training programs.
“So there is Honhaar here, and incitement there, but this is nothing to celebrate,” she remarked, expressing concern that KP residents were still “living in the stone age.”
Maryam emphasized that people in KP were unaware of development opportunities and the importance of digital tools like laptops, iPads, or computers for meeting global standards. She indirectly noted that PTI had been in power in KP for 13 years, yet the public “does not even know what development is.”
She also criticized the KP government’s reliance on “awareness campaigns” in response to public needs and pointed out that road blockages in KP harm the province’s own economy, not Punjab’s.
During her address, Maryam recalled personal struggles when her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, was hospitalized with cancer in 2017–2018, and her father and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faced health issues during imprisonment in 2019. She condemned the ridicule and political exploitation of her family’s illnesses at the time.
Maryam Nawaz also played archival clips of PTI chief Imran Khan threatening to remove TV and AC facilities from PML-N leaders’ prisons, asserting that neither she, Nawaz Sharif, nor Shehbaz Sharif ever mistreated him. She highlighted the importance of separating political differences from personal enmity.
Calling for an end to lies, accusations, incitement, and fitna in politics, Maryam Nawaz stressed that even political opponents should be wished well and given proper care when ill.
