Former PM’s of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari continue to face the heat from the PTI Government. Pakistan PM Imran Khan reiterated his resolve not to offer any National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)-style deal to Asif Ali Zardari or Nawaz Sharif no matter which ‘monarch’ they approach to put pressure on him.
“Those who plundered the national exchequer and burdened the nation with financial woes would be made answerable. There would be no concession for looters and plunderers no matter which monarch they approach for relief. I won’t be moved [by such recommendations],” the Khan stated.
Khan said during the last decade, the two successive governments of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) saddled the country with Rs 30,000 billion debt but their leaders (Zardari and Sharif) became billionaires. “I will make them answerable. In a democracy, leaders are answerable for every deed they commit and they do not flee the country in the face of accountability.”
Khan stated that if Zardari and Nawaz Sharif bring back the looted money, the Pakistani rupee will be strengthened. He said those who stole billions of rupees have been expecting VIP treatment in jails. “This is Naya (New) Pakistan. There will be one Pakistan for all – same law for all and sundry,” he added.
Khan also stated that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), power, gas sectors and railways were all facing huge losses due to corruption. “A country does not become poor due to lack of resources but due to the cancer of corruption. It is the corruption which makes the elite class richer at the cost of the poor,” he said. “Two houses of Sharif and Zardari became billionaires while the nation suffered.”
Khan rebuffed the opposition’s claims of being vindictive. He said when he had taken up the Panama Papers case in the Supreme Court, the previous rulers had registered 32 FIRs against him and filed six cases in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
“That can be called as vindictive approach by the PML-N government,” Khan said. He added that he had answered all the questions in the Supreme Court which declared him as ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Amin’. “I did not escape to London but replied to every question,” he added.
