LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday said accountability of one family only was no justice, so all plunderers must be held accountable in a transparent manner.
Accountability of one family is no accountability, the chief minister said, while replying to reporters’ queries after the inaugural ceremony of patients transfer service at Model Town.
In the background of the JIT inquiry into the money trail of the Sharifs’ London property and the leak of picture of his nephew, Hussain Nawaz, at the JIT office where he was called to appear, the chief minister appeared unhappy and said, “This child was made to sit there. God forbid, he had not done corruption or usurped loans of billions of rupees. He had not plundered even a penny of anybody. If accountability has to be done, then it must be across the board of all. The loot and plunder in NICL, the Bank of Punjab, Overseas Foundation and Ogra, Nandipur should also be probed and those who have done this corruption should be held accountable. The people who have deposited 60 million dollars in Swiss banks are not being held accountable.” He further said, “There are people who got their loans written off, plundered the money of widows and bought aircraft and factories with the looted money, but nobody is probing them. I would humbly request the apex court to hold accountability without any discrimination. If it does not happen, God forbid, the country cannot move further.”
He said, “People want indiscriminate accountability and recovery of the plundered money. Those who got their loans worth billions of rupees waived off are now delivering lectures against corruption. All should be held accountable if accountability is required, but victimisation should be avoided. Accountability of only one family is no justice.”
The chief minister said, “Many TV anchors are good, but a few are criticising the government only for the sake of criticism. One of them said Shehbaz Sharif talks about setting up electricity projects. It is not a metro bus project that could be completed in 11 months. I don’t want to reply to criticism, but the whole nation has witnessed that Bhikki Power Plant was completed in 18 months and Sahiwal Coal Power Plant in 22 months. Our projects are transparent and speedy. We act what we say. Had the JIT exercised its powers to bring back the looted money, the whole money in foreign countries’ banks would have been brought back. Accountability should be done, no doubt, but it should be remembered that our family had lost everything in 1972. The Bhutto government had taken away everything from us in the name of nationalisation. Then, during the tenures of Benazir and Musharraf, this family was made victim of their revenge.”
Earlier, speaking at the ceremony, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the provincial government had allocated a huge amount of Rs 230 billion for health sector in the annual budget 2017-18, which was 15 percent of the total budget. It was a matter of satisfaction that different steps taken for betterment of healthcare facilities were proving fruitful and the people were getting relief, he asserted. “Patient transfer service is another revolutionary step of the Punjab government, under which patients from tehsil headquarters hospitals and district headquarters hospitals are being shifted to large hospitals free of cost. Now, patients from Rawalpindi, Okara or any other remote areas of the province can be easily shifted to any of Lahore’s large hospitals through this new system. No ambulance driver will ever dare to demand money as fare from the patients. The comprehensive system of patients’ transfer has banished the old one. Now, ambulances of Rescue 1122 are providing service to take patients to hospitals timely. Special desks have been set up in hospitals.”
He said hepatitis was a dangerous disease which was spreading in Punjab and other parts of the country. The Punjab government had adopted an effective strategy for its eradication, he affirmed. He added a hepatitis clinic was providing healthcare facilities to the patients in Lahore while similar clinics would be established in the entire province within a few months. He said work was in progress on Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplant Institute in the provincial capital to provide latest healthcare facilities to liver and kidney patients. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would inaugurate this project on December 25 this year, he revealed and added 250-bed Government Tayyip Erdogan Hospital was being established in Muzaffargarh.