Accountability must to move country towards prosperity, says Qureshi

KARACHI: The whole nation is united on the PanamaLeaks issue and accountability is must to move the country towards prosperity and development because the corrupt need to be punished or they would be encouraged.

This was stated by Vice Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Monday.

Qureshi said corruption was the biggest problem in Pakistan and it was only Imran Khan who was fighting against that menace in the country. He said the PTI had started a movement to awaken the masses and to prepare them for the battle to get rid of the country's corrupt rulers. "Now the ball is in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the nation is looking towards the apex court," he said.

The apex court's decision will be historic, he added. The PTI leader further stated that a protest movement was launched because Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seemed in no mood to frame the Terms of Reference (TORs) to probe the Panama Papers' scandal. He said NAB should have taken action against Nawaz Sharif soon after the Panama Leaks revelations. He said the PTI will bring the real and true democracy in the country as the party had become the most powerful political force in the country.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the PTI was blamed for solo flight but the party made all-out efforts to take along all the opposition parties on the issue of Panama Leaks. However, he said the government was not ready to frame the TORs, hence they were left with no option but to resort to mass protests.

About the decision to change its prosecutor for the Panama case, the PTI leader said Hamid Khan submitted the application to the PTI chief and said the media campaign against him had made it impossible for him to continue representing the PTI in the apex court.

Khan had requested Imran to humbly step down from the position, added Qureshi. He said now Naeem Bokhari, along with a panel of senior lawyers, including Babar Awan, was representing the PTI in the Supreme Court for litigation of the Panama Papers' case.