Minutes after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) presser ended, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders led by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry conducted a press conference of their own.
Chaudhry defended the ongoing accountability drive, reminding his critics that “it is our mandate to catch thieves.”
Regarding PML-N leaders’ repeated labeling of the premier as a “selected prime minister”, the information minister reminded them that “the PML-N itself was engineered by General Zia.”
“Mian Sharif, Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif were not even councilors before General Zia,” the firebrand PTI leader added.
Chaudhry questioned the basis of PML-N’s criticism of PML-Q, a key government ally, pointing out that one of their former leaders (Mushahid Hussain Syed) was in their own ranks.
In the earlier presser, multiple PML-N leaders had asked why Shehbaz Sharif was in jail but PTI leader Babar Awan was not despite the NAB inquires against both.
Chaudhry explained that Shehbaz and Khawaja Saad Rafique, unlike Awan, were influencing the probe against them.
He alleged that Nawaz and Zardari together ran the “largest money laundering factory” in the world and both had formed a system of corruption under an agreement. He said the two figures had named looting of wealth as democracy.
Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar tackled the Aleema Khanum issue. He claimed that the PM sibling’s case of undeclared assets was resolved with just a fine because “she has never been a public office-holder.”
The state minister said that Khanum has since also submitted her money trail in the court, pointing out that her only fault was that she had not declared a foreign asset – an offence for which he said a penalty was apt retribution.
Published in Daily Times, December 26th 2018.
