PTI to ‘resist tax amnesty scheme in parliament’

Spokesperson asks Sharif to formally request public proceedings in court

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday announced it will strongly resist the government’s tax amnesty scheme in parliament, terming it an attempt to pave the way to “whiten black money and to benefit money launderers”.

Commenting over the scheme, senior PTI leader Asad Umer said, “It is beyond comprehension why a government that has only a couple of months left in power introduced such a scheme.”



Slamming the government for the move, Umer said the National Assembly Standing Committee for Finance had earlier unanimously passed a resolution against the introduction of any amnesty scheme in the country, adding the government had bypassed parliament through its decision.

Despite the resolution, he went on add, braggarts of “sanctity of vote” were so oblivious to the sanctity and dignity of parliament.

“Discounting the parliamentary resolutions and shamelessly announcing the amnesty scheme, brings into open the PML-N government’s intentions to whiten nation’s looted money by the plunderers,” Umer lamented.

He remarked that this was in real sense disrespect and humiliation of the nation’s vote. “The PTI,” he added, “will strongly oppose the vile attempts of the government to whiten looted money and will continue its struggle against such autocratic trends.”

Meanwhile, one day after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Safdar said that the accountability court proceedings should be broadcast live, the PTI has demanded of Sharifs that they should file a request to this effect with the court.

Giving the PML-N a 72-hour notice, PTI Spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said, Nawaz and Maryam should submit an application through their lawyers, requesting that court proceedings be broadcast live, “or else PTI will do the needful”.

Taking a jibe at the father and his daughter, Chaudhry stated the party had previously said that Sharif and his daughter would never want accountability court proceedings to be broadcast live because they would never want the truth to be shown to the public.

“Yesterday, both were demanding for live broadcast. Today, during the hearing, the PML-N did not raise the issue or submit an application in this regard,” the PTI spokesperson further added.

Chaudhry said: “The sole purpose of threatening and giving enraged speeches in public gatherings and the media is to spread confusion and tension.”

PTI yesterday backed Maryam’s demand to live broadcast trial proceedings against the Sharif family in the accountability court. “This way our nation will witness the house of Sharif’s lies and fabrications,” Chaudhry had said.



Maryam, in a tweet on Wednesday, demanded that the accountability court proceedings against Nawaz and her should be broadcast live “to make the public cognisant of the truth.”