ISLAMABAD - PTI chief Imran Khan has accused Sharif brothers of running the country as their personal estate, terming PML-N's one year performance as nil.
"For me, it looks like Sharif family has inherited this country and running it like their family business," the cricket-turned politician told a press conference at his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s central secretariat in G-6/4 on Sunday.
Flanked by his die-hard comrades, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak and Assad Umar, Khan threw a string of accusations on Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif and his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who remained central focus of his media appearance.
Clad in traditional white Kurrta Shalwar, Imran Khan looked furious and much agitated during press conference as he kept firing shots at Sharif family which he said has concentrated power into their own hands.
"Look gentlemen! Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab CM, is working as de-facto prime minister of Pakistan. Maryam Nawaz Sharif, PM's daughter, has been appointed to head a Rs100 billion scheme. As it was not enough, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif is ruling Punjab, country's most resourceful and populous province," Imran said.
The PTI chief, who is around 70 years of age, seemed much like an angry young man when he questioned integrity of Sharif family and their way of ruling the country. "Let me know if I'm wrong. I ask the leadership of PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) which type of politics they are doing. Isn't it true that Punjab CM is the de facto PM? Is Maryam competent enough to head Rs100 billion scheme?" he asked.
Imran did not stop here. Rather, he questioned Premiere Nawaz Sharif why does he always take his brother with him on foreign tours. He regretted, the PM never bothered to ask KP CM Pervez Khattak of PTI to accompany him. "Is this fair to ignore chief ministers of other provinces when it comes to going abroad on official trips? Is this an exclusive prerogative of Punjab CM to accompany the PM on foreign trips?”
Bowling another bouncer to PM Nawaz, Imran accused the federal government of encouraging investment in Punjab alone. "Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has much potential of low-cost power generation. Sadly, the federal government is encouraging investors to invest in (much costly and climatically unclean) coal-fired projects in Punjab. Is it fair to ignore other provinces?" Khan again questioned.
He alleged federal government of using funds of small provinces in Punjab and Lahore only. This move will create hatred for Punjab among people of smaller provinces, he maintained. The PTI chairman said that government's policies and its failure in ending power outages were hurting the nation.
Khan also questioned lavish spending on Nawaz' foreign tours and daily expenses of the PM House. "A huge amount of Rs3,135,000 are being spent on PM House daily. Another 400 million are being spent on Raiwind Palace's security every year. A huge amount from public exchequer is being spent on so many foreign tours. But, no progress has been seen in foreign investment during last one year."
Imran pointed out that it were the leaders of a nation which is begging from the world to run businesses of an atomic power. He informed the pressmen that federal government has recently received $40 billion from local and foreign monetary bodies.
PTI Leader and MNA Assad Omar criticised recently announced budget 2014-15 and termed finance minister’s claims about economic growth in the country as a farce. "International Monetary Fund had rejected incumbent government's statistics (4.1% GDP) and had declared 3.3 GDP growth in Pakistan, much less than Peoples Party led government's 3.8% growth rate in recent past," Asad said.
Assad Omar, PTI's financial expert, also surprised the media by hailing performance of PPP-lead government when asked to compare it with Sharif's one year. He lauded PPP rule which performed far better than PML-N despite inhering deteriorated economy. He told the media that country saw lowest foreign investment during last year in past 50 years.
Referring to late 60s political scenario in Pakistan, Omar said that 22 families were ruling Pakistan in 1960s which created hatred among provinces and the country suffered loss as the East Pakistan broke away from the federation. He lamented Sharif family's politics of preferring Punjab over rest of the country and criticised PM Nawaz for appointing his blued-eye as heads of organisations like Pemra, Nepra and SECP.
Assad denounced Nawaz Sharif's engagements during recent visit to India and criticised him for not meeting leadership of Hurryat Conference. "It looks like the PM was on a personal visit along with his business magnate son Hussain Nawaz. He even hurt the 180 million people of Pakistan by refusing to meet with Kashmiri Hurryat leaders in New Delhi," Omar said adding that government has offered Indian investors to establish their business in Pakistan at 20% tax rate while the local investors are forced to pay 33% tax.
The PTI leader asked the federal government to clear rumours about Hussain Nawaz' shares in recently launched project in Karachi at the land acquired by Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). He alleged that the government ignored Supreme Court's clear orders for not leasing out PSM land to any company and allocated 200 acres of PSM land for the said project.

PTI’s demands from govt:
Reduce GST rate to 15% and bring it down to 10% in next 4 years.
Reduce electricity tariff by 30%, put emphasis on NTDC and DISCOs to reduce losses and theft for cost recovery instead of penalising consumers and industry.
Reduce UFG (unaccounted for gas) back to 4.5% from 7%.
Urgent measures to bring back $200 billion of money laundered to Swiss Banks.
Pensions should be pegged to minimum wage rate – no pensioner should receive pension below minimum wage rate and change in minimum wages must be incorporated in pensions.
3 million high net individuals outside the tax net must be forced to pay Rs100,000 upfront with adjustments after tax returns are filed.
Government must provide detailed province/district wise break up of federal PSDP spending.
Cancel the recently amended coal tariff notification - it is broad daylight robbery! [Imported coal tariff has been raised to 24% from 17% and Thar Coal tariff to 30.5% from 20%]
Independent Statistics department - outsource data collection and analysis to top 20 universities (LUMS, IBA, QAU etc) so that policies can be constructed on independent, accurate, verifiable and reliable data. Otherwise, the government will continue to operate as a deaf, dumb and blind entity. It is one thing to present lies as statistics but quite another to start believing in your own lies.