Musharraf better than PPP, says Lord Nazir

LONDON: A fierce critic of former military-backed President Pervez Musharraf has said the unchecked corruption under current government is reminding Pakistanis of Pervez Musharraf’s era when overseas Pakistanis were not harassed and asked for bribes at Pakistani airports.
Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, who has campaigned against Musharraf and organised many parliamentary meetings for Benazir Bhutto when she was in exile in London, told a gathering of British Pakistanis that overseas Pakistanis were scared to visit Pakistan as police at all airports were corrupt and asked for bribes.
“There is no one in Pakistani government to arrest this problem. I am ashamed to say this about the party of the late Benazir Bhutto, but Pervez Musharraf was better than this government. There was no corruption at airports under Musharraf. I am ashamed at the away the PPP is governing Pakistan,” Lord Ahmed said, while speaking at an event, where Inspector General Police Azad Kashmir Dr Tariq Khokhar also spoke about the measures he was taking in Azad Kashmir to rid police of the scourge of corruption.
He said overseas Pakistanis were the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and Pakistan could utilise their potential to free itself from the negative hold of the international monetary funds, but the government was only interested in taking revenues and least bothered about solving the problems they faced at the hands of the corrupt police and bureaucracy when they returned home. He demanded of the Pakistani government to answer questions over the corruption issue.
“Otherwise, this government should have no business with billions of dollars in foreign exchange sent by overseas Pakistanis.” Dr Tariq Khokhar told the community members that the government of Pakistan had doubled the salaries of the police force in Azad Kashmir and it had a visible impact on the reduction of the crimes rate.
He said after Pakistan injected the AJK police with cash, the performance of the local police had been very good. Speaking to The News, Khokhar worried that some areas of Azad Kashmir were being used by al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants for recruitment to carry out terrorist acts. He said some madrassahs in two AJK districts were currently under watch and assured that actions will be taken against the miscreants.