Blame game: Nisar Khuhro highlights flaws in PTI’s governance

Questions PM Khan's meetings with NAB chairperson

HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said his party's leaders are not afraid of arrest and imprisonment which have remained a part of their decade-long political struggle. The comment came at a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday in reaction to the assertions of some Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leaders that PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari is likely to be arrested in a money laundering case being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

"The PTI has collected turncoats from different political parties who talk about the arrest [of Zardari] to curry favour of their party's leader," said Khuhro, pointing out that no corruption reference has been filed against his leader. "It's an attempt to stifle the voice of the political opponents."

Khuhro questioned as to how the federal ministers came to know which politician of the opposition parties would be arrested. "Is the National Accountability Bureau in their hands or the judiciary isn't free?" He asked investigation and accountability agencies to answer why they provide information to the minister and why Prime Minister Imran Khan meets the National Accountability Bureau's chairperson.

"How can we expect from a party to uphold sanctity of the parliament when it's known for cursing the parliament," he asked. When asked to comment on the statements of Federal Ministers Fawad Chaudhry and Shaikh Rashid, Khuhro referred to them as defectors who keep changing political loyalties.

He blamed the PTI government for failing to deliver and on the contrary increasing problems for the people due to inflation and the Rs500 billion budgetary cut on development.

He argued that instead of slashing the budget the government should have tasked the Federal Board of Revenue with improving tax collection in order to meet that spending. "The amount could have been transferred to the Supreme Court's dam fund and no one would have to say that despite efforts of several months only Rs8b have been collected [in the fund]."

Khuhro blamed PTI for appeasing their foreign masters by increasing the rates of electricity, gas and fuels and allowing the rupee to depreciate against dollar, in an oblique reference to International Monetary Fund (IMF). "One mini budget after another is being brought to saddle the people with more taxes," he bemoaned.

He criticised Khan's 'chicken and egg' vision a risky venture which will also face accountability issue in the future. "If the government wants to eliminate poverty then it should expand the Benazir Income Support Program by increasing the monthly stipend instead of selling hens and roosters."

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2018.