Imran opposing ToRs to save Tareen, says Pervaiz

Minister accuses PTI of ignoring corruption within party ranks

ISLAMABAD:

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said on Monday Imran Khan has rejected the government’s terms of reference for the Panama leaks commission only because he wants to shield his party leader Jahangir Tareen from the graft inquiry.

“The news of Jehangir Tareen getting his company loans written off is the obvious reason Imran Khan is not accepting the ToRs for the judicial commission,” the information minister said on Monday.



“We are serious in investigating all allegations of Panama Papers but the PTI leadership is hiding something from the people and that is why they are opposing the ToRs,” he added.

According to a State Bank document, Tareen has gotten Rs49.8 million of loans waived off from various banks.

As of February 28, 2013, Tareen’s company Faruki Pulp Mills had Rs19.2 million waived off from United Bank Limited; Rs9 million from Muslim Commercial Bank; and another Rs21.5 million written off from the Royal Bank of Scotland.



State Engineering, another company of Tareen, still owes Rs0.9 million to the now-defunct Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan and Rs406.8 million to the National Bank.

Pervaiz said the opposition parties knew the hands of Nawaz Sharif were clean and corruption allegations against him would crumble.

“Those running away from the judicial commission want to save their cronies, who have been involved in corruption,” he said while talking to newsmen in Hunarkadda.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the minister said, the Bank of Khyber scandal had emerged but Imran did not form any commission. Rather Sikander Sherpao, whom Imran himself sacked on allegations of corruption, was to investigate the matter.

Even Imran himself, he added, had been facing allegations about the misuse of funds of the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital.



Moreover, Pervaiz said, a case for misappropriation of PTI funds was pending with the election commission as Imran had been trying to delay the proceedings on various pretexts.

“Now that the prime minister has announced formation of the commission, there is no justification for agitation and anyone indulging in street protests will be joining hands with those forces, which do not want the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to complete,” the minister said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2016.