February 12, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 04 ,1429

KARACHI, Feb 11: On assuming power, the Pakistan People’s Party will file a corruption case against the former prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, for his alleged involvement in multi-billion rupees scams of stock exchange, privatizations of Steel Mills, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).

This was stated by the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Raza Rabbani, during a news conference held at the People’s Secretariat on Monday.

He called for the issuance of red warrants against the former premier, Shaukat Aziz, who he alleged had been given a safe exit by the rulers.

Mr Rabbani, who is also the PPP deputy secretary-general, confidently claimed that the Pakistan People’s Party would form the government after the Feb 18 elections. The PPP would sweep polls not only in Sindh only but also in Punjab, he said predicting that the Pakistan Muslim League-Q would not be able to win more than 20 seats of the National Assembly from Punjab.

The PPP central leader criticised PML-Q Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Syed over his statement regarding the release of the deposed judges and termed it a joke with the people of the country.

He also questioned the role of the PML-Q since March 9, 2007 when the chief justice was forced to step down and detained under the PML-Q government.

The PPP leader also slammed President Pervez Musharraf and the PML-Q leaders over their indifferent attitude towards the May 12 mayhem in Karachi.

He said that it was the PML-Q, which moved a resolution in the National Assembly supporting all the illegal actions of the military dictator against the judiciary and the media.

Mr Rabbani urged Mushahid Hussain and other top leaders of the PML-Q to offer an explanation to the nation for their silence over the harassment of the legal fraternity and activists of various political parties who were protesting against the illegal detention of the deposed chief justice.

He charged that people in the PML-Q government were a group of sugar mafia, wheat flour hoarders and it had written off Chaudhry brothers’ loans worth billions.