Maryam again targets Khan, says Pak PM "cannot tolerate a small protest"

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz Wednesday took a jibe at Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying the "man who paralysed" Islamabad for four months "cannot tolerate a small protest".

Her comments came as hundreds of Pakistan People Party (PPP) workers and police clashed in Islamabad as party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in relation to a fake accounts case.

Police used water cannons to disperse the PPP workers and stop them from moving towards the NAB headquarters. There was a scuffle between PPP workers at police at Islamabad's D-Chowk. Police baton-charged workers at several places and made some arrests, media reports said.

Responding to the incident, Maryam, now a Vice President of the PML-N, condemned the attack on the PPP workers.

"The person who attacked Parliament, PM House, PTV and paralysed Islamabad for four months could not tolerate a small protest because he is scared," Maryam tweeted in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Khan.

In 2016, Khan, the Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf held anti-government demonstrations daily in Islamabad, demanding the resignation of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif of PML-N over corruption charges.

Maryam, the daughter of Sharif, also claimed Khan was "afraid" of protests and termed the treatment of the PPP workers as "torture".

On Tuesday, Maryam criticised Khan, saying that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not give respect to his Pakistani counterpart and did not take his call in February when tensions between the two nations escalated after their air forces were engaged in an aerial combat.

On May 20, Bilawal hosted an Iftar for Maryam and her party members, which sought to project a united Opposition front against the ruling Pakistan Tehreeke-e-Insaf led by Khan.