Imran backs Ch Nisar’s stance on NAB chairman’s appointment

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan on Monday welcomed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s statement that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should be under the Supreme Court and its chairman should be appointed by the apex court.

Talking to the media here outside his Bani Gala residence after chairing a party meeting, Imran emphasised that NAB must be under the apex court, only then transparency and fairness could be ensured and corruption combated. He added that hitherto NAB had only apprehended the poor and weak in the society. He added people had no more faith in the accountability system and even people in the federal government had started speaking against it.

Imran urged the Supreme Court to constitute a bench early on the Panama Papers case and that it should hold day-to-day hearing, as the masses awaited a judgment on the case.

Imran alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had spoken two clear lies: He lied on the floor of the National Assembly and then presented a fake Qatari letter in the apex court and was caught red-handed.

Imran claimed the truth was, which Ishaq Dar had stated before a magistrate in a hand-written statement in 2000, that wealth was transferred abroad through money laundering by Nawaz Sharif.

The PTI chairman contended that the PanamaLeaks case was very important in Pakistan’s history, as it would decide whether it were to become a really democratic state or a country controlled by the mafia.

On the government of Punjab’s decision to revive the deputy commissioners, Imran said it was an attempt by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to control the local governments in the province. He condemned this development, lamenting the local bodies were about to start functioning, Shahbaz had come up with the revival of the DC system.

The PTI chairman said that during his party’s public meeting in Swabi on Sunday, by raising their hands, 100 percent of those present at the venue acknowledged that Nawaz Sharif was a convicted person but they again raised their hands to say that he would not be punished. He charged that, unfortunately, NAB was promoting corruption instead of fighting it.

“Unfortunately, our system is such that the powerful are not punished and this has eroded masses’ faith in the system. Had we not taken to roads, the Panama Papers issue would have been pushed under the carpet,” he claimed.

The PTI chief said that the entire public believes that Prime Minister Nawaz was guilty of money-laundering. "But they also know he will go unpunished," he added.

"The job of the opposition is to question the executive powers. We are doing our job," Imran said, when asked about low attendance of PTI MNAs during the assembly sessions.

Asked about his comment on the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s public meeting on Tuesday (today) and the possible line of action to be unveiled by the party leadership, if its four demands are not met by the government, he said that people had great hopes and let us see what announcement would the PPP leadership makes.

Regarding former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s statement that he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the intervention of former army chief General Raheel Sharif, Imran said that this gave the impression that there was no law for the powerful people.

He termed the statement by Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif as exceedingly irresponsible, as there was already a global front against Pakistan’s nuclear programme. He charged the minister’s statement had caused embarrassment for Pakistan abroad.  The PTI chairman called Khawaja Asif incapable and corrupt.