Asif Ali Zardari granted bail not given clean chit: Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said Monday it might take some time but the looted (through benami, TTs and buying assets) nation’s wealth will be recovered come what may.

Talking to media persons here, she emphasised that no one, having done wrong be spared and the law would take its course, pointing out that Asif Ali Zardari had been granted bail on medical grounds but cases against him still pending. She said bail on health grounds did not mean that he had been given a clean chit. She made it clear that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had been given a free and it was functioning independently like never before and presently was busy in removal of ‘speed-breakers’.

Dr Awan contended that the incumbent government believed in across the board accountability by empowering the institutions so that in future, none could use them as a tool for their vested interests, as had been the practice in the past. She noted emphatically that it was the first time that influential persons had been made subservient to the law. She said the law will take its course against the corrupt elements.

Earlier, speaking at the launch of Information Commission’s website in Islamabad, Dr Awan said the nation would never allow the terrorist mindset to succeed in its nefarious designs through unity in its ranks.

She paid tributes to the armed forces, police and other law enforcement agencies and the civilian administration for the eradication of terrorism, adding it was because of their joint efforts that peace had been restored and bright face of Pakistan was being introduced in the world by prime Minister Imran Khan.

About the launch of Information Commission’s website, she explained that was aimed at providing credible and certified information to the people including the journalists about any institution or the priorities of the government.

She said the Information Commission since its establishment last year had received 220 applications and of these, about 100 had been addressed by the commission. The commission initiative would provide credible information regarding the government departments to local as well as those living abroad. While in a tweet, Firdous Ashiq Awan Monday said the common emotion between people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and Palestine was resistance. In a tweet, she posted two related photos and wrote, “One photo is from West Bank, where an Israeli soldier is witnessing defiance of a Palestinian girl. The other is from India, where an Indian girl is showing defiance to an Indian Policeman. Common emotion Resistance”.

In other tweets, about the carnage at Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16 in 2014, she said that the APS was a proof of the fact that despite all machinations by the enemy, the Pakistan neither was defeated nor could ever be defeated. “Peace is our future and God willing, we shall achieve our destination with unity in our ranks,” she maintained.