No ‘amnesty’ for Zardari, Nawaz: Fayyaz

LAHORE : Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has said that former President Asif Zardari and former Premier Nawaz Sharif have joined hands to protect each other's corruption, but this time there will be no "amnesty" for them.

"Our opponents may do what they want but the PTI government will Insha Allah complete its five-year tenure under the dynamic leadership of Imran Khan", said the Punjab information minister while talking to the media persons on Wednesday. He said Zardari's politics had caused an irreparable loss to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which once was the party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said the anti-corruption authorities had traced around 5,000 fake accounts having billions of rupees in them, which is the result of the untiring efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser on accountability, Barrister Shahzad Akbar.

"How can the PPP leaders deny that their leader has nothing to do with these accounts, when Zardari himself has admitted before the media that the accounts in question belong to him", the minister maintained.

"Gone are the days when the country's looted money was laundered through models and actresses like Ayan Ali. The PPP leadership must understand the fact", he added. In the recent past, he went on to say, some politicians, including Ahsan Iqbal, used Aqama (work permit) for money laundering and concealing their illegal wealth.

Commenting on Senator Mushahidullah Khan's challenge for a debate on corruption, the minister said he was ready for that anytime anywhere. "His only forte is apple polishing of Sharifs, and he has got a seat in the Senate as a reward for this service, the minister said.

To a question regarding "vandalism" by the lawyers in Faisalabad, he condemned the incident and appealed to Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to take cognisance of the incident and take action against those involved in it.

Responding to another question about presence of former PTI Secretary General Jehangir Tareen in the party and other meetings, Chohan said that Tareen was a senior party worker, and he participated in the meetings in that capacity. A political worker cannot be disqualified from politics, he opined.

To yet another question, he said, "Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is a wise politician with a high intellectual level, and he is as sincere with the PTI as he is with the PML-Q", the minister said.