ISLAMABAD: The main opposition PPP on Thursday lashed out at the federal government for “misusing” public funds by issuing newspaper advertisements in defence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose family members are facing allegations of money laundering and corruption in the wake of the Panama Papers leak.

The PPP has also submitted a calling-attention notice to the National Assembly Secretariat, seeking a justification from Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rasheed over the use of public funds to promote a personal and party agenda.

Soon after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the government released half-page colour advertisements to almost all main newspapers of the country, carrying excerpts of a news item regarding a correction issued by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – the organisation which released documentary evidence of those who owned offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands – regarding the prime minister’s involvement.

PPP submits calling attention notice in NA over release of ads on Panama issue; minister justifies move

The advertisements also carried the correction from the ICIJ website: “Due to an editing error, a sentence in an earlier version of this story implied that the prime minister of Pakistan controlled an offshore company that appeared in the Panama Papers files. It is his children who control the offshore companies.”

Talking to Dawn, Saeed Ghani, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate, said the use of public money to defend the prime minister and his family members could not be justified by any means.

“If the prime minister wants to defend himself or his family members through a media campaign, he should spend from his own pocket,” the PPP leader said.

There was no need to issue the advertisement, since everyone knew from day one that the Panama Papers did not contain the prime minister’s name, he said. However, he said that even in its clarification, which was also mentioned in the advertisement, the ICIJ confirmed that the prime minister’s children were controlling offshore companies.

Mr Ghani said the opposition had been asking the prime minister to come clean on the issue and tell the nation how the money, which was used by his children to set up offshore companies, was transferred abroad at a time when they were still counted among Mr Sharif’s dependents.

Mr Ghani also called on the judiciary to take suo motu notice of the advertisement campaign, as it had done during the previous PPP government. He said opposition parties would also take up the issue during their meeting, scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Monday.

Refuting the charge that public money had been misused, Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed justified the release of the advertisements saying that since the prime minister represented the country and its people, therefore, it was the responsibility of his ministry to defend his office.

Mr Rasheed said the smear campaign being carried out by opposition parties was not only damaging the prime minister as an individual, but was also earning a bad name for the country.

He said the opposition was hell-bent on maligning the prime minister through baseless allegations despite knowing that the Panama Papers did not contain the prime minister’s name.

“When opposition parties insist on polluting [the airwaves], it is our job to clear the air,” the minister added.

PPP MNAs also submitted a calling attention notice to the National Assembly on Thursday, “inviting the attention of the minister for information and broadcasting towards the gross misuse of public funds by the government especially to run the personal exoneration campaign for the prime minister and his family in relation to Panama Leaks through half front page advertisements in print media.”

“Such lavish use of public funds to promote personal agenda is not only a waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money but also a blatant violation of the law as no law of the land allows to spend public money for personal motives,” says the notice, a copy of which was released to media by the office of the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly.

The motion has been submitted by Syed Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Imran Zafar Laghari and Shugufta Jumani.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2016