The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leadership on Friday accused the PML-Nawaz of “institutionalised corruption” in the first three quarters of the financial year.
PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujat Hussain and Punjab president Chaudhry Parvez Elahi were talking to journalists at their residence. Other party leaders were also present.
Hussain called Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif “experts in institutionalised corruption”. He said that that was evident from the recent raising of $2 billion from the international debt market through five- and 10-year dollar-dominated Eurobond offering. Hussain said that Pakistan could not afford to borrow at 7.25 per cent to 8.25 per cent interest rate but claimed that that had been done because of the Sharifs’ personal interest and claimed that around 40,000 Eurobonds had been bought by the Sharifs.
Hussain said that his party would soon issue a factsheet. He also claimed that the Sharifs had made billions of rupees from the recent fluctuation in the rupee-dollar conversion rates.
He said that while Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had also indulged in corruption through transfers and postings, the PML-N had institutionalised it. He said that that was why the people could not judge the corruption by the PML-N.
Parvez Elahi said that his party was also a victim of rigging but would adopt a different strategy from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek who have announced protests on May 11.
He said that only an independent commission could ascertain rigging in the May 2013 election. Elahi said that the former chief justice of Pakistan was involved in rigging as he had addressed all returning officers before the election, which had no precedence in the country’s history.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2014.