Shehbaz, family corruption cases: Sudden death of investigators raises serious questions, says Imran

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has said that sudden and mysterious deaths of witnesses and investigators linked to the corruption cases of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his family members raise serious questions, which must be addressed.

In a series of tweets, he shared details of the witnesses and investigators who died suddenly during the last few weeks since the ‘imported government’ was imposed through the US-backed conspiracy. He termed it an attempt by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his associates, “brought in through the US regime change conspiracy”, to use mafia tactics to save their corruption and money laundering.

Imran said that the six important witnesses and investigators, part of the cases against Shehbaz and his family, had died mysteriously so far. They include: Gulzar Ahmed, Muzammil Raja, Ghulam Shabbir, Maqsood Chaprasi, Dr Rizwan and Imran Raza.

He said the death cause of Gulzar Ahmed, who was a peon at Ramzan Sugar Mills Limited (RSML) and a ‘benamidar’ account was operated in his name even posthumously, could not be ascertained so far, while the other suffered heart attacks. He continued that Nadeem Akhtar, another investigator in the money laundering case of Sharifs suffered a heart attack but he survived. He added that Muzammil Raja was Sharif’s servant and duty bound to draw money and hand over to Maqsood Chaprasi and he suffered a heart attack.

Similarly, Ghulam Shabbir was also a ‘benamidar’ account holder of Sharifs and a brother of Muzammil Raja, who died due to a heart attack: Maqsood was the front man and ‘benamidar’ account holder of Sharifs and cause of his death was reportedly heart attack. Dr Rizwan was investigating the money laundering case against Sharif, who also died of a heart attack; Imran Raza, who was investigating Rana Sanaullah’s case, committed suicide.

Meanwhile, PTI Central Secretary General Asad Umar lashed out at the “imported” government for ‘plunging the country into the quagmire of problems’.

Asad Umar said that the ‘imported government’s incompetence and flawed policies created worst-ever problems for Pakistan, as the country’s foreign reserves was fast depleting and rupee losing its value at alarming pace.

He warned that the massive surge in the fuel prices would trigger a storm of inflation, which would further compound the miseries and hardship of the massive. He said that abysmal performance of the incumbent regime could be judged from the fact that the foreign exchange reserves fell below $9 billion with a fall of another $240 million last week, which is alarming.

Similarly, he said that rupee was depreciating fast on daily basis and the government completely failed to rein in the free flight of dollar.He said that gravity of the situation could be judged from the fact that rupee kept falling daily with a total fall of over Rs30 per dollar in the last three months since tabling of the vote of no confidence against the PTI government.