Durrani criticises PM

ISLAMABAD: Former Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani has lambasted Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for tax amnesty scheme, while dubbing it 'looted money amnesty scheme' and said instead of making efforts to bring back the looted wealth of our poor people despite the lapse of ten years time of legislation titled Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (STAR) at the UN level.

"The rulers deliberately wasted this opportunity which aimed at providing opportunity to the developing nations to get back their resources, which had been siphoned off by their corrupt leaders," he said in a media interaction on Sunday.

Muhammad Ali Durrani claimed this scheme is a bid to the ruling junta, after his failure of becoming a plaintiff before chief justice in an attempt that a licence to corruption should not be revoked.

The former information minister termed Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as a spokesman for the plunderers while diminishing the prestige and dignity vested in the office of the prime minister of Pakistan. "These plunderers from ruling elite stashed looted wealth in Swiss banks amounting to 500 billion dollars, operate through secret offshore companies and own huge properties abroad,” he accused while talking to media.

Durrani rejected the prime minister’s criticism on judiciary for as unfounded and lauded the efforts of judiciary for nabbing the looters and protecting national exchequer from continuous loot. "The prime minister's pressure tactics against NAB will be futile as whole nation stands behind anti-corruption drive of national institutions and people want strict penal actions against looters and plunderers of national wealth and want that their foreign assets should be brought back," he said.

Moreover, Durrani said that the complaint of the prime minister's was that the apex court and NAB, by instituting cases against the ruling family, have actually breached their privileged right of looting the national exchequer. Durrani stressed that efforts should be made to bring stolen money as India has already recovered nine thousand billion rupees using the same legal mechanism during 2011 to 2017 but on the opposite our prime minister was not in favour of breaking tradition of support to the black money holders, who own billions of dollars worth property on their offspring’s name.

"The prime minister intends to keep Pakistan with the begging bowl in the world, whose government was acquiring record high loans under the garb of development but depriving nation from basic needs like education, health, protection of life and property manifesting bad governance at the top," he said. Durrani said nation has plaint against the rulers with a cry that they were sick and tired of continued loot and plunder and submit an appeal for mercy as they did not find much strength to let rulers steal them with both hands anymore. “People were screaming on the worst state of hospitals, their children being deprived of education; streets were filled with garbage and children being molested, killed or die having no food. On the other hand PM wishes that courts should remain lull and calm on the violation of the very fundamental rights of the people guaranteed in the Constitution and in absence of all this no democracy can flourish, yet the spokesman of the ‘House of Sharif’ want to gag and muffle those who were questioning the bad governance and demanding the fulfillment of fundamental rights of the people.”

He said the prime minister’s call on to the chief justice, while having a trash bin full of crimes of the rulers on his head, was an insult of the Constitution, Parliament and democracy. “Instead of showing courage to protect the people, the PM has proved himself to be a protector and defender of looters. PM should have become plaintiff for the rights of the poor people of our country instead of defending the looters,” Durrani said.