PML-N, PPP demand probe into Aleema Khan’s properties

KARACHI: Leaders from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party lambasted the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for its “double standards” of justice and demanded an investigation into the foreign properties owned by the prime minister’s sister.

The Sindh Local Government Minister, Saeed Ghani, has said Prime Minister Imran Khan is under obligation to inform the nation about his source of income and about the properties owned by his sister Aleema Khan abroad. Talking to newsmen here at the Sindh Assembly on Friday, Ghani said a forensic audit of the funds of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital (SKMH) should be conducted against the backdrop of reports of widespread corruption related to international donations for the SKMH. He said the PTI lawmakers had turned unruly during the Sindh Assembly session fearing questions about Aleema Khan's property uncovered in the United States.

To a question, the local govt minister said the Prime Minister’s family have concealed their assets abroad and a Joint Investigation Team comprising members of the parliament should be constituted to probe them. He said the names of PM's family members should also be placed on the Exit Control List. The minister said he is proposing a new JIT as the previous ones against the opposition could not perform impartially and their proceedings were brazenly influenced by the government.

He said the prime minister owns a palatial house despite being on record to say he has no known source of income. Ghani lamented that despite clear-cut directives of the Supreme Court, the names of Sindh chief minister and the Chairman of PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have not been removed from the Exit Control List. Saeed Ghani said he might request the Sindh CM to ban the entry of federal ministers to Sindh who had caused political unrest.

Meanwhile separately talking to newsmen, the Minister for Works and Services Syed Nasir Hussain Shah demanded the constitution of a JIT to probe into the undeclared accounts of PTI and the properties of Aleema Khan. The provincial minister said there are different set of laws in existence for Aleema Khan and the sister of Asif Ali Zardari Faryal Talpur. He appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to take cognizance of the issue. He said the PTI is unduly engaged in baseless criticism against the performance of the Sindh government.

Reacting to the latest discovery of another allegedly undeclared property of Aleema Khan in the United States, the PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, questioned her source(s) of income and called her a “benamidar” of the prime minister. She alleged that clues of the “income sources” could be found in the fundraising boards of Shaukat Khanum Hospital and the Namal University.