PM asks ministers to shrug off Wajih’s allegations

Imran gets briefing on gas crisis, inflation

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Imran Khan has asked his ministers and advisers party leaders to reserve their energies for highlighting corruption committed by opposition leaders, advising them to refrain from making further comments in his defence against the allegations of former PTI member Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed.

Chairing a meeting of the party’s spokespersons on Friday, the prime minister discussed various issues, including the money laundering case against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, ongoing inflationary trend, and the energy and gas crises.

While maintaining that he never squandered millions on his household expenses, the prime minister advised the party’s spokespersons against “wasting time in speaking about such matters”.

Instead, he emphasised, “leaders of the opposition parties have looted the national treasury”. “More should be said about that,” the sources quoted him as saying.

Earlier this week, Wajihuddin Ahmed, while speaking on a TV news programme, had claimed that the now-estranged PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen used to provide funds of up to Rs5 million per month for PTI chief Imran Khan's household expenses, but offered no proof for the same.

"This belief is entirely false that Imran Khan is a [financially] honest man," Ahmed said. "His condition is such that he hasn't been running his household himself for years."

His allegations were met by severe backlash and criticism from the ruling party’s leaders, including an immediate rebuttal from Tareen himself.

"Regardless of the current status of my relationship with Imran khan, the truth must be told," Tareen said in a tweet on Wednesday.

He said while he had done "whatever was in my capacity to help PTI in the quest to build a new Pakistan", he "never gave a penny for the household expenses of Bani Gala".

"Just want to set the record straight," he added.

During Friday’s meeting, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar briefed the prime minister and the participants on the legal aspects of the money-laundering case against Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza.

Determined to bring the money laundering case to a logical conclusion, PM Imran reiterated that the accountability case should be pursued relentlessly as “the nation’s money has been laundered out of the country”.

The meeting also reviewed the current energy and gas situation in the country and the measures taken by the government to remedy the crisis. Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar briefed the PM and the participants on the matter.

‘Reducing inflation govt’s priority’

While briefing on the latest inflation trend in the country, Finance Advisor Shaukat Tarin said that the recent measures would bring the inflation trend downwards. He took the participants into confidence over the economic data.

At this, PM Imran affirmed that public relief and reduction of inflation were among the priorities of the government, sources said.

Later, briefing the media about the core committee's meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared as a witness in his defamation case against Khawaja Asif through a video link.

Under the new system set up by the law ministry in Islamabad, he said witnesses can appear in their cases through video conferencing, and this practice has been started. He said that PML-N leader Khawaja Asif had alleged misuse of charity money at Shaukat Khanum Hospital in 2012, and the case has not been decided yet.

Shaukat Khanum Hospital spent Rs70 billion every year on treatment of poor people, Fawad said, adding if such allegations were made then who will do charity work in Pakistan. He expressed the hope this case will be decided soon, and as always Khawaja Asif would prove to be a liar, as he never told the truth in his life.

The minister said during the Punjab Committee meeting the prime minister has expressed no confidence in Khanewal election in the meeting of Punjab Committee.

He said that deficiencies should be rectified, reports of money laundering and horse trading came to thefore in by-elections which was unfortunate and ECP should take steps in this regard so that horse trading in elections can be stopped.

The minister said that upcoming local body elections in Punjab were discussed in detail and a high level committee had been formed in Punjab to finalize the candidates for the post of district mayor. He said that Minister for Energy Hamad Azhar gave a briefing on the gas issue in a meeting of spokespersons.

He said that they were informed that out of 2300 industrial units of Sui Northern, gas was being supplied to 1800 units. He said that Hammad told the spokespersons that it was not possible for the government to give costly imported gas to industries at cheap rates.

Fawad said that giving gas to captive plants would mean complete shutdown of gas for domestic consumers.

The ministry of energy was of the view that the captive plants are inactive, it is not right to give more subsidies as these plants were generating electricity from gas, which was available in excess discounted rates. He said that the gas problem was more acute in Karachi, as the commodity was being supplied to 50 top exporters in the mega city. Gas reserves in Pakistan decreased by 9% last year and they would further deplete 9 per cent this year, said Chaudhry Fawad.

He said that the government procured gas according to its carriage capacity, but expensive imported LNG cannot be given for domestic use.

Talking to the media, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Faruukh Habib said that the PML-N cast votes of dead persons in the be-elections in Khanewal. He said that after 40 year an extra ordinary meeting of OIC was being held on Afghanistan as Pakistan wanted to inform the Muslim Ummah and the entire world about the impeding humanitarian crisis in neighboring country.

He said that the Secretary General of OIC had arrived in Islamabad and various other delegations were arriving today.

He said that this meeting was a manifestation of the successful foreign policy of Pakistan.