Fuel, wheat, sugar crises: Saeed Ghani asks NAB to take action against PM, ministers

KARACHI: Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani has said that the National Accountability Bureau in order to prove its neutrality should immediately file references against the prime minister and his relevant cabinet members responsible for natural gas, sugar, wheat flour, and electricity crises in the country.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, Sindh Education and Labour minister alleged that Rs 122 billion were robbed from the people owing to the government’s failure to timely place the order to import LNG due to which furnace oil was used to generate electricity.

He said that they would wait for NAB’s action but in case of inaction they would present a reference on their own to the accountability agency along with all the proofs of the case. He said that incumbent PM and his cabinet members were behind the sugar, wheat flour, and petrol scams and were extending undue financial favours to their cronies. The Sindh minister alleged that the public exchequer and the masses had to bear losses to the tune of Rs 1,000 billion during the past two years owing to the incompetency and corruption on the part of the present rulers. He said the persistent inaction of NAB in all these cases gives the impression that there existed a nexus between the accountability agency and the present government.

He said the NAB on one hand promptly issued notice to education secretary on the basis of a false news item published in a newspaper but is maintaining silence despite the availability of all evidences of obvious corrupt practices by the rulers.

He said the Special Assistant to PM on Petroleum Nadeem Babar had of late acknowledged that the government could have saved billions of rupees if they had timely placed orders for the import of LNG. To a question, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan, his family members, and members of his cabinet in the past had availed tax amnesty schemes owing to their hidden assets.