Panama leaks: Bilawal breathes fire at AJK poll rally

Says PM must answer queries in parliament

BAGH: Reiterating his demand that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should step down till investigation into Panama Papers leaks is completed, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked the premier to answer ‘people’s queries’ on the floor of the house.

“The prime minister is answerable to parliament and must answer questions that nation wants him to reply on the floor of parliament. Investigation into the Panama Papers is a must and the need of the hour,” Bilawal said.

He was addressing a rally in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Bagh district in connection with the upcoming general elections in the semi-autonomous region, where the PPP is currently in power.

Accusing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led federal government of political victimisation, Bilawal said the government put names of two former prime ministers of the PPP on Exit Control List.

“But Mian Sahib keep it in mind that they are the followers of Bhutto’s philosophy and will never leave the country as you did in the past. You have to accept it that you were wrong in the past,” he said.

The PPP chairperson also accused the anti-graft institutions of selective accountability.

“We want to ask the FIA [Federal Investigation Agency], the NAB [National Accountability Bureau] and other agencies as to why they are not investigating the Rs500 billion circular debt, Nandipur project and Qatar LNG deal cases,” he asked.

He also took issue with what he called the prime minister’s ‘pro-India policies’, which, he said, had weakened the country.

Bilawal said the world was not ready to give visa to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “However, due to the prime minister’s pro-Modi policies, the Islamic countries are now conferring awards on him despite the fact that Modi had massacred Muslims in Indian Gujrat for three [consecutive] days.”

He said Nawaz Sharif went to New Delhi to attend Modi’s oath-taking ceremony despite his anti-Muslim role and invited him to celebrate his birthday in Lahore, while forgetting to celebrate the birthday of the Father of the Nation,  Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

“Such pro-Modi policies have weakened the country,” he said.

Bilawal said Pakistan is a first Muslim atomic country and the leader of Muslim world but Nawaz Sharif is still in love with Modi, who is our enemy.

The PPP chief claimed that agents of India spy agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), were arrested from the prime minister’s factories, adding that the present government had damaged the country’s foreign policy.

“The prime minister has imposed sanctions on the AJK and not initiated any public welfare project in the region. Mian Sahib you have done nothing for Kashmiris. You are the friend of Modi,” he said.

Hitting out at Punjab government, Bilawal said the Chottu gang – a group of gangsters in South Punjab’s Rajanpur area – had exposed the good governance claims of Sharifs.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.