Bilawal lashes out at Imran, PTI govt for being ‘most corrupt’
KARACHI: In what appears to be the first claim of its kind against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday called it the “most corrupt” in the country’s history and directly accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of leading the trend with the Abraaj Group as his “front” and “ATM” that was allowed illegal profiteering in Karachi through K-Electric, which the group owns.
He also claimed that KE — which was already under fire from political parties, provincial and federal governments and angry consumers — was enjoying inflated electricity tariff and allowed to carry out hours-long loadshedding without any check only because its parent company had close contacts with the prime minister and whose owner remained a key source of funding for the ruling party. “It’s daylight robbery,” he told a press conference at the Sindh Assembly’s auditorium hall while waving and referring to a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report which he claimed had exposed all facts and “connivance” between PTI and the Abraaj Group. Accuses Federal Minister Ali Zaidi of ‘minting money’ for prime minister in Peshawar BRT project “This report is about Imran Khan’s ATM [the Abraaj group]. It’s being deliberately ignored by everyone. It exposes how the KE and the Abraaj Group [are] gouging Karachiites. Abraaj is Imran Khan’s front and ATM. Everyone knows this fact. This is a mega corruption scandal. But I challenge media to hold any show on this issue. I know ... you all would stay silent.” In an aggressive and detailed presser, the PPP chairman apparently for the first time picked up on the alleged corruption of the PTI government as his focus, levelling serious allegations against key members of the federal cabinet and named close aides of the prime minister for running “rackets” with direct blessings of the premier.
He called the PTI government the “most corrupt government” in the history of Pakistan and questioned the role of the media, which he said during his party’s rule between 2008 and 2013 linked every scandal with the government and former president Asif Ali Zardari. NAB not pursuing probes against PTI
He referred to the recent report of Amnesty International which highlighted serious issues of corruption in the PTI government and the Auditor General Pakistan who found misappropriation of Rs270 billion in the first year of PM Khan’s rule.
“But you don’t report,” the PPP chairman said while taking a jibe at the media. “Do you know that Punjab [government] is being run on jadoo and corruption? Who’s making every key appointment? Who’s awarding major contracts? And who’s making money? But you will never ask. From billion tree scandal to Akbar S. Babar’s foreign funding case and from flour, sugar and petrol crisis to corruption in BRT Peshawar project ... NAB is silent and so [is] the media. Because we [PPP] are the most corrupt people and they [PTI] are saints.”