KASUR - PTI chief Imran Khan has invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to enter parliament for a verbal contest on the issue of Panama leaks.
“I invite Nawaz Sharif to come and debate me in parliament. Let’s talk it out there; you say what you have to and I will say what I have to,” said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman on Sunday while addressing a rally in Kasur.
He asked the prime minister to engage in a parliamentary debate “for the country to see”. “This is how democratic debates happen,” he added.
The Supreme Court is hearing a slew of petitions filed by the opposition parties in the wake of the Panama leaks, with the Sharif family facing allegations of corruption.
Referring to the Panama Papers, which revealed offshore properties of the Sharif family and others, the PTI chief said, “The prime minister is answerable to the public on even one hidden property.”
Terming the prime minister the ‘king of corruption’ in Pakistan, Imran said, “The onus is on Nawaz Sharif to inform the general public about where the property of his children came from.”
Imran Khan said that Supreme Court’s decision in the Panamagate case will have far reaching effects on Pakistan’s future.
Talking about JUI-F leader Fazlur Rehman, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali and PkMAP leader Mehmood Achakzai, the cricketer-turned-politician said “they have probably sensed that the ship is going to sink therefore they are jumping off it to save themselves.”
The Panama documents were made public last April and alleged around 140 leaders of the world of evading taxes and stashing wealth abroad while 200,000 offshore companies were revealed.
The second round of the leaks was released in May by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in which 400 names of Pakistanis having offshore companies were unmasked.
Imran in his speech at Khuddian Khas area of Kasur said the country cannot progress until it gets rid of the corrupt rulers whom he accused of looting and then laundering public money to foreign banks.
He alleged that the Sharif family set up 28 factories during its 30-year-long rule in Punjab. Before coming into power, the family had only one factory, he claimed.
The PTI chairman said the poor are deprived of basic medical facilities while the rulers fly to London even for medical check-up. He reminded the people of Zohra Bibi of Kasur, who died in Jinnah Hospital of Lahore on the cold hospital floor due to shortage of beds at the hospital.
According to the family, Bibi had been refused treatment at four public hospitals ? the Kasur DHQ Hospital, the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Services Hospital and the Jinnah Hospital, one after the other in few hours before she died at Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital.
“There are so many [people like] Zohra Bibi who die everyday because of a lack of hospital beds and proper medical care,” Khan said.
He said that government spent Rs12 billion on advertisement, just three billion less than the budget of Balochistan province which is Rs15 billion. He regretted that a small corporate group is devouring resources of the entire country.
“The PTI will continue struggling against corruption until it is eliminated from the country,” he pledged. He claimed that the PTI will appoint an honest NAB chairman after coming into power.
“Nawaz Sharif tells lies in the Parliament but says he is immune from prosecution like every head of state,” the PTI chief criticised. For the first time in the history of Pakistan a prime minister was being investigated in the Supreme Court, he said.
Nawaz will have to go home if letter of the Qatari prince is proved false and the BBC reports regarding Sharif family’s London flats are authenticated, he said. He added that Supreme Court’s verdict will be in favour of Pakistan.
PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Awami Muslim League (AML) president Sheikh Rasheed also addressed the public meeting. PTI leaders including former foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed and Aleem Khan were also present.
Earlier, Imran Khan came to Khuddian Khas through helicopter and stayed at the Dera of former PTI MPA Sardar Hussain Dogar for almost an hour.