ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday declared the reports submitted by joint investigation teams in the Panama Papers and fake bank accounts cases “case studies”.
Expressing his perplexity at those “defending the plunderers”, the prime minister said the scale and methods used to “siphon off public money” were “incredulous and mind-boggling”.
“The Panama JIT report & the Fake Accounts JIT report are case studies in how states fail – getting impoverished & drowning in debt. The scale & methods used for siphoning off public money are incredulous & mind-boggling,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
“I am puzzled & perplexed by those who, despite having read the two reports, are still defending the plunderers,” the premier added.
An accountability court on Monday sentenced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison in Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference, while acquitting him in the Flagship Investment reference.
The same day, a JIT report submitted in the Supreme Court held the Zardari and Omni groups responsible in the mega money laundering and fake accounts case.
Separately, PM Imran Khan on Tuesday assured minority communities that they would be treated as equal citizens in Naya Pakistan “unlike what is happening in India”.
“Naya Pakistan is Quaid’s Pakistan and will ensure that our minorities are treated as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India,” The prime minister tweeted on the birthday of the founder of nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
He added that Jinnah had envisaged Pakistan as a “democratic, just and compassionate” nation.
“Most importantly, he wanted our minorities to be equal citizens. It should be remembered that his early political career was as an ambassador for Hindu Muslim unity,” the premier said, adding that Jinnah’s struggle for a separate nation for Muslims only began when he realised that Muslims would not be treated as equal citizens by the Hindu majority.
It is the second time in a week that the prime minister has highlighted the treatment of minorities in India. On Saturday, the premier had asserted that Pakistan would ensure equal rights to all minorities and show Indian premier Narendra Modi’s government “how we treat the minorities in Pakistan in stark comparison to the minorities’ status in India”.
He had said that in India voices were being raised about the discriminatory treatment of minorities.
Published in Daily Times, December 26th 2018.
