PPP damaged national institutions: Murad

Minister accuses Zardari of causing losses to national kitty

Murad says Bilawal considers Pakistan as his mother and national institutions as her jewellery

ISLAMABAD:

Irked by Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks, Federal Communications Minister Murad Saeed on Thursday accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of damaging key national institutions during their tenure and causing great losses to the national exchequer.

The PPP chairman had said that the government was finding excuses to sell off assets of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in order to benefit its front men.

“The PPP laid the foundation for the destruction of all institutions – including Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), the PIA and railways,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.

The PSM had a profit of more than Rs8 billion by 2008, the minister said, alleging that the national entity was near to its destruction during the PPP tenure led by former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

He went on to say that the railway department was also “devastated” during the PPP tenure. The PPP was involved in recruiting people in the national flag carrier “through nepotism and corruption,” the minister added.

Murad alleged that the PPP also brought the PIA to the brink of destruction and accused its top leadership of money laundering.

“It was from such fake accounts that money for sacrificial goats for Bilawal was given. It was this black money that financed the extravagant birthdays of Zardari’s children,” he said.

While making such claims, the minister demanded of the PPP leadership to explain their performance and apologise to the nation and “return the stolen wealth” to the national treasury.

He said: “If he [Bilawal] considers Pakistan as his mother and national institutions as her jewellery, then he would certainly be sorry for the damage done to the country’s interests.”

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