levelling allegations against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regarding the accountability bill, Babar Awan should remember that he sat out more than two and a half dozen meetings on the accountability bill, said National Assembly Member (MNA) Anousha Rehman Khan on Sunday. She said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had intentionally presented a weak draft of the bill so the plunderers of national wealth could not be brought to justice.
She said PML-N had adopted a principled stand on accountability and added that it was expressed in all meetings. She said PML-N had proposed 58 amendments to the draft presented by PPP so that an independent and free accountability institution could be set up, but, she added, in order to save its own people against the bill, PPP wanted a weak accountability institution. She said despite requests by the PML-N committee members, the parliamentary party chairperson was not willing to talk on the dissenting notes, which proved that the PPP-lead coalition government was not in favour of establishing a strong accountability institution.
Commenting on Awan’s statement on “Qarz Utaro Mulk Sanwaro Scheme”, Khan said it was an attempt to distort facts and added that it was on the State Bank’s record that the entire money collected under the scheme was used for repayment of the debts. She said that in response to her question in the National Assembly on October 31, 2010, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh had admitted in writing that the internal loans of Rs 1.7 billion were repaid with the money collected under the scheme. Khan said Awan’s attempts to mislead the citizens would never succeed as the facts were evident.