The federal cabinet on Wednesday expressed full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, labeling the allegations against the premier and his family in the wake of the Panama Leaks as “baseless” and a part of an “international plot” aimed at destabilising the development projects launched in Pakistan.
The cabinet, which met after more than seven months, also passed a resolution expressing full confidence in Nawaz’s leadership. The resolution was moved by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid and was endorsed by all the cabinet members.
The cabinet members also denounced, what the ministers said was a vilification campaign launched by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) against the prime minister. The minister said the ICIJ had themselves acknowledged that they had committed a “journalistic mistake”.
The ICIJ said Thursday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had not himself featured in the Panama Leaks and while his family members did indeed have offshore companies, the prime minister’s name should not have been mentioned as being directly linked with such companies.
While there was never any confusion about who was actually being accused, this has not stopped the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders from trumpeting the ICIJ clarification as proof that the whole thing was an international conspiracy designed to derail the development agenda of the government.
The meeting demanded that the consortium should “determine those responsible for the mistake and proceed to take immediate action against them”.
A source told Pakistan Today that one of the federal ministers expressed reservations about the mass contact drive launched by the prime minister, and urged the premier that those agitating were “rejected politicians” and the PM should not worry about them.
The minister referred to some recent incidents where a handful of opposition protesters had raised slogans of “Go Nawaz Go” during some recently held government functions, adding that a similar incident with the PM as chief guest may backfire and the entire media focus would shift to protesters rather than the prime minister, which would fail the mass contact drive.
“The prime minister should hold a meeting of the parliamentary leaders of the PML-N. Since MNAs are the real representatives of the masses, the PM’s increased contact with the parliamentarians would help strengthen the parliamentary system and the parliament as well,” the source quoted the minister as saying.
The cabinet expressed its resolve that the PML-N and the people of Pakistan will not allow “a few regressive opportunists to sabotage the stride of the country towards the destination of development and prosperity”.
BOTH SIDES ARE HURT:
While the federal government has launched a new campaign saying that the ICIJ has offered a clarification and withdrawn the name of the prime minister from the Panama Leaks, the opposition has rejected the notion, saying that the prime minister’s name did not feature in the Panama Papers from day one.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Information Secretary Naeemul Haq has announced to move court against Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid for launching a media campaign misusing the public money based on falsehood and blatant lies to shift the media focus from the prime minister’s family.
“The media cell set up in the PM’s House and run by Maryam Nawaz is running a slander campaign against the PTI leaders, misusing the public money. The misuse of state exchequer for a slander campaign against the opposition leaders is unlawful by all means,” said Naeemul Haq.
The PTI leader also claimed to having sent a legal notice to Information Minister Rashid seeking an apology for the false and fabricated claims against the opposition leaders.
In the legal notice, Naeemul Haq, through his counsel Salman Hamid Afridi, alleged that the information minister had used public money to launch a propaganda campaign against the PTI chairman and other leaders unlawfully using his authority as information minister.
PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira also laughed off the claims of the federal government that the ICIJ had withdrawn allegations against the prime minister.
“No media report ever claimed that the ICIJ had leveled allegations against the prime minister. Neither the media nor the opposition ever made a direct reference to the PM,” he added.
“What the PM House is claiming is that the children of the PM made a mistake and the PM has nothing to do with it. But the nation wants an investigation into the scandal. We want a forensic audit to probe the money trail and the sources of income of the PM’s children,” he added.
“We need a fair investigation into the matter. The government shouldn’t try to confuse the issue. It wouldn’t help them,” Kaira said.