Firdous asks people to respond to PM’s message

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan Monday appealed to people, industrialists and traders to respond to the Prime Minister's message about asset declaration by declaring their assets and becoming part of the tax reforms agenda. In a statement, she said Asif Zardari was arrested in a fake bank account case. The FIA had started investigations in the fake accounts case in December 2015 and till June 2018; many high-profile persons were identified. She continued in this case, Zardari’s close friend Hussain Lawai and Taha Raza were arrested, as the Joint Investigation Team had identified as many as 11500 accounts and 924 account holders. JIT experts also made report 24000 cases and 59 suspect transactions and the threshold for investigation was Rs10 million transactions. Some 767 persons were questioned.

Dr. Awan alleged both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari obtained loans to purchase properties in foreign countries, whereas Prime Minister Imran Khan was seeking loans to pay back the debt.

She pointed out that the arrest of Nawaz and Zardari proved that the law was equal for all in Pakistan. She termed the fake bank accounts case as a classic example of money laundering and white collar crime.

The Special Assistant said the opposition did not want improvement in economic condition because revival of economy would politically undermine them. She said, “On one hand the opposition claims that its projects are being stolen while on the other, it is criticizing the same projects, which show their political hypocrisy”.