ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan on Wednesday claimed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has indulged in corruption in the name of business.
He added the premier was given five chances, to tell the truth, and come clean in front of the people of the country. “He was given five chances, to tell the truth to the people, starting with the first hearing in the Supreme Court and the last chance being the JIT.” He also referred to incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as the “biggest conman of Pakistan”.
Reiterating his call for the premier’s resignation, Imran alleged that the business entities of the Sharif family have served as a front for money laundering. The PTI chief said Nawaz was given ample chances to prove the money trail, more so after the Sharif family had accepted the properties in question as theirs.
“The JIT was formed by the Supreme Court so Nawaz Sharif could answer the questions he could not answer in court,” added the PTI chief. Imran questioned how the assets of the Sharif family increased year after year as the business entities they owned were continuously were in the red. He also alleged the development schemes initiated during Nawaz’s tenure were meant to siphon off funds from those projects through front companies.
“When Nawaz Sharif became chief minister of Punjab years ago, Ittefaq Foundry went into a loss. Yet by 1993, the family had 30 factories,” he said. “The JIT brought to the forefront one fact, the business of the Sharif family is corruption,” alleged the PTI chief. Referring to electoral reforms, Imran asked for voting rights for overseas Pakistan and said bio-metric voting should be introduced in the country to tackle rigging during elections.
In other news, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Spokesman Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday said the Supreme Court’s decision on the Panama Papers case will come by Friday.
Addressing the media outside the Supreme Court, Chaudhry said the counsel of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif informed the court about the financial assets of the prime minister’s father; however, he was silent about the assets of Hussain and Hasan Nawaz.
Chaudhry said the son of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif became a billionaire when he was only 16-years-old and ironically the premier did not know about it.
The PTI spokesman alleged that the prime minister and his sons lied to the court and the judiciary understands that the petitioner did not provide any valid documents to them.
PTI’s Naeemul Haque also used strong words to condemn the PML-N’s allegations on his party chief Imran Khan.
“I say Nawaz Sharif does not come to court because he fears arrest, he is the biggest criminal in the country’s history,” Haque said.
In an angry tirade, Haque fumed that PML-N had broken all records of using inappropriate language.
He also alleged that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai have taken undue favours from the premier to ‘sell their conscience’.