Imran takes fuming Dar to task over hospital remarks

Calls him guilty and says hospitals are spared even during wars

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and other leaders of his party on Monday reacted furiously to the remarks of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after his appearance before the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the offshore assets of the Sharif family.

Talking to the media outside the Federal Judicial Academy, Dar called Khan “a coward and a gambler, who’s involved in tax evasion”, saying: “His assets should be scrutinised to find out how he became rich overnight.”

“How much will you lie?” asked Dar while addressing Khan. “You should be ashamed of conducting politics on the basis of lies.”

The PTI chairman took to twitter to respond to Dar’s tirade, saying the minister “stooped to new lows” when he attacked the hospital that provides free cancer treatment.

“Even in wars, hospitals are not targeted by enemy, but here Sharifs and their henchmen targeting SKMTCH providing cancer treatment for the poor,” he tweeted.



The PTI chairman was on a two-day visit to Chitral to inaugurate the 69MW Lawi Hydropower project and meet party workers. In addition, he is also to inspect the billion-tree tsunami afforestation drive.

“But Sharifs & henchmen don't care ab[ou]t fate of poor patients in Pakistan because they rush off abroad even for mere check-ups,” he tweeted.

The PTI chairman also posted a picture on his twitter account in which the finance minister is seen wiping sweat off his face with a handkerchief. He captioned the picture: “A picture is worth a thousand words! Guilt written all over his face.”

In Lahore, PTI central leaders Shafqat Mahmood and Fawad Chaudhry, while addressing a joint news conference, called Dar a partner and facilitator of the Sharif family “in looting and laundering money”.

They said Dar was being investigated as witness, but he still had an option to withdraw his statement and present him as an accused before the JIT.

Mahmood said there were indications that the ruling PML-N was devising a strategy to launch agitation if the JIT’s decision went against them, “but they should keep in mind that the PTI and the whole Pakistani nation is standing behind the apex court and national institutions”.



Instead of resorting to mud-slinging and making a charity hospital controversial, the ruling party should look inward, he maintained.

Mahmood said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had never faced ‘real’ accountability. “Everyone knows how the Sharif family has earned billions of rupees worth of properties abroad.”

He said the PTI did not make the Panama Papers revelations.

“Instead of producing money trail in court, the ruling party is busy maligning the Supreme Court and the JIT,” he said, adding that they were also trying to give an impression that the Pakistan Army was behind all that investigation.

“Rulers should honour the credibility of state institutions,” he underscored.

Mahmood said the finance minister should also face accountability. “He should tell the nation how their children earned billions of rupees worth of properties in Dubai and from where they got expensing vehicles. Dar’s confessional statement was the biggest proof against him.”

He said the PTI was ready to present itself for accountability and added that the rulers should keep in mind that Imran Khan had brought foreign exchange to Pakistan.

Referring to the PML-N clamour over summoning of the premier’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, by the JIT, Mahmood said: “They should not forget what their leaders did to late Benazir Bhutto. The JIT has summoned her because she is the beneficial owner in the offshore companies.”



Commenting on Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique’s speeches, the PTI leader said he was trying to establish that PM Sharif was ‘democracy’ that would be derailed in case the JIT decision went against him. “Corrupt rulers are under threat – not democracy,” he said.

In Karachi, PTI’s central leader and former Punjab governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar said the change his party wanted to bring would start from Mehmoodabad.

He was addressing a news conference along with senior party leaders, including PTI Sindh president Arif Alvi, Haleem Adil Sheikh and Firdous Shamin Naqvi, in connection with the upcoming by-election to the Sindh Assembly in PS-114 constituency.

Sarwar urged the people of the constituency to come out in large numbers and cast their votes to make the change and revolution a success.

He criticised the Sindh government over its move to restrain the IGP from transferring and posting police officers and said that in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Chief Minister could not post or transfer any officer of the police.

Alvi, while speaking at the news conference, said the PPP government was using state machinery to influence the by-election, citing the transfer of area SHO as an example of what he called pre-poll rigging.

“Soon after the Panamagate verdict, Asif Zardari will also be held accountable for his corruption,” he said.

 

(With additional input from our correspondents in Lahore and Islamabad)