Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday requested state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) to broadcast his ‘live’ address to the nation on Sunday night, but the government has declined the request.
According to an April 8 letter issued by the PTI Secretariat to PTV’s secretary of information, Imran Khan intends to discuss the recent “disinformation” regarding Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre during the address.
“Since the Panama Leaks have come to the fore, the prime minister, the information minister and various MNAs of the ruling PML-N have used PTV’s network to spread disinformation amongst the masses regarding Shaukat Khanum Hospital,” the PTI says.
The letter justifies Khan’s right to use of the station’s platform, saying the television network “runs solely on taxpayers’ money, which makes PTV a network of each and every Pakistani citizen”.
The PTI goes on to request PTV to “make all the necessary arrangements” for Khan’s live address to the nation. “Mr. Khan will address the nation from his office using DSNG/Live OB van.”
However, later in the day while speaking to the media, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said, “We cannot permit Imran Khan to speak live without directive from the speaker of the National Assembly.”
“If he thinks this is a case, Imran Khan is welcome to submit a request to the Supreme Court. The judicial commission has full right to enlist the help of any institution.”
Imran Khan on Monday demanded that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) initiate a thorough investigation into the financial holdings of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members after a massive leak of secret files from a Panamanian law firm revealed they “owned or had the right to authorise transactions for several offshore companies”.
Nawaz announced the constitution of a high-level judicial commission to probe his family for wrongdoing during an address to the nation on Tuesday, the PTI called for transparency in the probe, requesting the commission be headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
On Monday, leaked documents from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm showed that Sharif’s daughter Mariam and sons Hussain and Hassan owned, at least, three offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. Mossack Fonseca denied any wrongdoing.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said these companies were involved in the purchase and mortgage of at least $13.8 million in UK properties.
One of the holding companies also purchased another, Liberia-based, holding company for $11.2 million in August 2007, according to the documents.
The documents do not show the source of the assets held by the holding companies. They are part of a tranche of 11.5 million documents leaked by the ICIJ, dubbed the ‘Panama Papers’.
Political opponents, notably Imran Khan, have accused Sharif’s family of having gained the funds illegally through corruption during his two previous stints as prime minister in the 1990s.
Sharif and his family have denied any wrongdoing, saying the assets were gained legally, mainly through the family’s network of businesses and industries in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.