Nawaz, Zardari have already contested their last polls: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Tuesday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari had already contested their last elections and the only suspense left for them was whether they will live the rest of their lives at home or in jail.

Fawad contended that the focus of their politics now was on how to escape from the law and the cases against them. He made it clear that the government presently was facing no political challenge, however, challenges are there in governance and economy because of the misrule and lavish spending of the past governments.

The minister alleged that Zardari had no care for the rule, as he had reached the power corridor without any struggle, whereas Imran Khan had reached this stage after a struggle spread over 22 years. “That is why, Imran Khan cares about it,” he maintained.

Fawad charged that the PML-N government was extremely incompetent, which relied on borrowing and the rulers spent it on their lavish lifestyle. He added that the PTI had found Pakistan in total economic mess and was now improving the national economy.

Talking to media persons on different occasions, he made it clear that the government had nothing to do with the arrest of Khawaja brothers by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore and barring Hamza Shahbaz from going abroad. He maintained that neither the government formed the cases against Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique and nor it appointed those NAB officers who had arrested them. Fawad continued that both had been arrested by the NAB Lahore after rejection of their interim bail applications by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in the Paragon Housing scandal.

Fawad emphasised that the action taken by the independent and sovereign institutions against those, who were involved in corruption and plundering the national exchequer, shows that the country was heading in a right direction.

Coming hard on Nawaz Sharif, he alleged that the former prime minister misused national exchequer for his personal luxuries. He continued that Nawaz spent about Rs400 million on his treatment abroad and the same amount from the national exchequer was spent on the PIA plane, which took him to London and then returned empty.

“Every single brick of Raiwind was purchased from the government resources, while Nawaz claims that his family is multi-millionaire since ages then what was the need for using taxpayers' money for his health checkup in London,” he wondered.

He said the vision of Imran Khan was to put Pakistan on sound economic footing. He pointed out that the Monday's federal cabinet meeting was held with same spirit. He noted that unlike in the previous tenures, the ministers in the present government were being asked about their performance.

“Under the prime minister’s vision, no one is above accountability. The sale of government vehicles was a message to the cabinet members that they too will be held accountable,” he contended.

In a tweet, the minister explained that there were two main reasons for taxing mobile phones being imported and said, “Overseas Pakistanis are to pay duty for bringing over one phone. The tax will only be imposed on additional mobile phone sets. Tax on phones worth less than $60 is almost negligible. As much as 38% duty is to be paid on expensive phones.” He added that mobiles worth $2 billion were being imported.

He claimed the government finance team had a vision of making a self-sufficient Pakistan and for this the government had to take extraordinary measures in these challenging times.