LAHORE - Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid claims that hundreds of billions of rupees of looted money will come to Pakistan during the next couple of months. In a TV interview on Monday, he said various people have started plea bargaining with the government and by January- February Pakistan will receive this money. Answering a question, he said the prime minister was now directly overseeing the Punjab matters. He said Usman Buzdar was the prime minister’s choice and thus nobody had any right to raise any finger at him. Ruling out the possibility of any change within the PTI, the railways minister said there was not a single person in the ruling party who could see Mr Imran Khan in the eyes.

Replying to another question, he claimed that the PML-N would split into three factions, each to be led by Maryam, Shehbaz Sharif and Shahid Khakan Abbasi.  In his opinion this party no longer posed any threat to the government. He was of the opinion that like Nawaz Sharif, the government should also allow Asif Ali Zardari to leave the country on medical grounds. Once he was gone, Sheikh Rashid said, the prime minister would be able to rule the country comfortably. If convicted Nawaz could go abroad, why not accused Zardari? the minister asked. He said if Zardari was not treated like Nawaz, a message of discrimination with Sindhi leader would spread (which should be avoided).