Govt hails UK move against corrupt elements, demands action against Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf federal government Friday welcomed the Britain move against the corrupt elements, who had stolen wealth of their poor countries and stashed it in the UK, and demanded action against former premier Nawaz Sharif.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib welcomed the sanctions imposed by Britain on the most corrupt individuals of world under UK’s global anti-corruption sanctions regime and called for similar action against Nawaz Sharif.

In a tweet, he said the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) leader was sentenced to jail by Pakistani courts on corruption charges, but he, as a fugitive, took refuge in London to escape punishment.

The minister said Nawaz Sharif’s act of building luxury flats in Avenfield after plundering Pakistan’s exchequer fell under the UK’s global anti-corruption sanctions regime. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan, at the United Nations, had already drawn world leaders’ attention towards the money being laundered from poor countries to the developed countries and also demanded action against such practices. Separately, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill said that the UK had announced action against Nawaz Sharif-type elements of poor countries for stealing money from their countries and depositing it in the UK.

Appreciating Britain’s move, he said, in the first phase, action is going to be taken against five such persons, adding, such corrupt elements are the root-cause of poverty and backwardness in many countries, including Pakistan.

Imran Khan had raised the issue at many international forums that such corrupt people were the real cause of poverty in those countries, he tweeted.

Shahbaz Gill said these corrupt people would have to face the music. After a scandal like Panama, the UK authorities were under pressure to take action against such corrupt elements, Gill added.