Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) central spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday said that the empty rhetoric of Prime Minister Imran Khan had been exposed.
In a response to premier’s Imran presser, the PML-N spokesperson said that the PM spoke highly of his “war against corruption”, but had appointed corrupt officials to government offices. “While the premier takes pride in the alleged crackdown on corruption, he ignores the hundreds of billions of laundered money funnelled into PTI official accounts through hundi four years ago.”
“The government cannot hide its failure behind blame-game and illegal arrest of the opposition leadership”, she said, adding: “Either fulfil your promise of bringing back $300 billion of Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan or apologise to the people of Pakistan for lying to them.”
She lambasted the performance of the PTI-led provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and asked, “How did the price of Peshawar Metro reach Rs 80 billion and where did Rs 6 billion of Accountability Commission vanish?” She said that the PTI was yet to explain Rs 45 billion loan taken by the KP government in the last tenure.
She pointed out that the PTI had repeatedly bashed the nominal increase in gas and electricity prices during the PML-N government and promised to bring down the price of these utilities. She said that the government instead of providing a ‘Better Pakistan’ had burdened the poor masses by increasing the prices natural gas and electricity
While criticising the proposed whistleblower law, she said that “whistleblowers like Justice (r) Wajih, General (r) Hamid Khan Akbar Babar, who have revealed corruption in the PTI ranks, were not only silenced but were made an example for others to keep their tongues tied”.
She said that the prime minister needed to tell the nation how did his sisters buy Rs 60 billion worth of property in Dubai while they did not have any source of income other than being members of the board of a not-for-profit welfare organisation. “The PM needs to tell the nation when will the offshore properties of Zulfi Bukhari, Aleem Khan and Jehangir Tareen be auctioned?”
She went on to say that an “incompetent” person had been elected as the chief minister of Punjab. “CM Buzdar’s competence can be measured by the fact that the premier is chairing every cabinet meeting as the former lacks the capacity and the ability to do so.”
She said that PM Imran should realise that hollow slogans may work from top of a container but they can’t help run a country of over 220 million people.
Published in Daily Times, October 8th 2018.
