ISLAMABAD - Chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Dr Tahirul Qadri on Saturday accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of using influence to get closed corruption cases registered against him in National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Qadri said that 143 corruption cases against Prime Minister Sharif have been closed so far, adding all this was made possible by appointing a blue-eyed as chairman NAB.
Addressing the participants of the PAT sit-in at D-Chowk, Qadri came down hard on the members of the parliament. He said that the MPs kept on talking about the constitution during the joint session of the Parliament but no one paid heed to the issues of the poor. He said that 45 per cent citizens of Pakistan are living below poverty line. He said that 'Go Nawaz Go' slogan has become the slogan of the entire nation.
The cleric also showed his clear tilt towards the dictators by giving examples of Musharraf regime and trying to prove that Musharraf's era was better for Pakistani nation than last PPP regime and the incumbent government. Drawing comparison between Musharraf's dictatorship and the two democratic governments including the present one, the PAT chief elaborated the prices of day-to-day commodities and inquired from the prime minister what he has given to the poor of the country.
Qadri particularly played on the electricity prices. He told his followers that the cost of per unit electricity was not more than Rs 3 in Musharraf's regime. During the Pakistan Peoples Party regime, the electricity tariff was doubled and it touched the price of Rs 7.5 per unit. Now again the price of electricity has been multiplied by two and the present cost of electricity stands at Rs 15 per unit, he added.
He inquired from MPs who delivered speeches in the joint sitting of the Parliament what advantages democracy has brought to the people. "This system is aimed at safeguarding the corruption of the rulers, while we want a system which can guarantee health, education, food and all the other basic facilities to the people," he said.