LAHORE - Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has said that former President Asif Zardari and ex premier Nawaz Sharif have joined hands to protect each other’s corruption but this time, there will be no “amnesty” for them.

Talking to newsmen here Wednesday, Chohan said Zardari’s politics had inflicted an irreparable loss to the PPP, which once was the party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said the anti-corruption authorities had traced around 5000 fake accounts bearing billions of rupees, which was the result of the untiring efforts made by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on accountability, Barrister Shahzad Akbar.

“How can the PPP leaders deny that their leader has nothing to do with these accounts, when Zardari himself has admitted before the media that the accounts in question belong to him”, the minister maintained.

“Gone are the days when the country’s looted money was laundered through models and actresses like Ayan Ali. The PPP leadership must understand this fact”, he added.

In recent past, he went on to say, some politicians, including Ahsan Iqbal used “Iqama” (work permit) for money laundering and to conceal their illegal wealth.

Commenting on Senator Mushahidullah Khan’s challenge for a debate on corruption, the minister said he was ready for that “anytime anywhere”. He has got a seat in the Senate as a reward for this service”, he said. To a question regarding vandalism by the lawyers in Faisalabad, he condemned the incident and appealed to the Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to take cognizance of the incident and take action against the involved.

Responding to another question about presence of former PTI secretary general Jehangir Tareen in the party and other meetings, Chohan said that Tareen was a senior party worker, and he participated in those meetings in that capacity. “A political worker cannot be disqualified from politics”, he opined.

Answering another question about the video leak, he said the Speaker Punjab Assembly, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, was a wise politician with a high intellectual level. “He is as sincere with the PTI as he is with the PML (Q)”, he noted.

However, the minister said that it was against the Pemra rules to broadcast a video made by a camera not belonging to any news channel.

“Our opponents may do what they want but the PTI government will Insha Allah complete its five-year tenure under the dynamic leadership of Imran Khan”, he said.