DERA MURAD JAMALI: Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, former governor of Punjab and a dissident of the ruling PML-N, says that there is no justification for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to stay in office after the leaked Panama Papers have exposed his family’s links to offshore companies.

Talking to reporters at the Khosa House here on Monday, he accused Mr Sharif and members of his family of being involved in corruption and money laundering. Panama Papers had exposed corruption of Sharif family and the prime minister should now step down because he had lost the confidence of people, he added.

Mr Khosa supported the demand of opposition parties for the formation of an independent and impartial judicial commission to investigate the links of Mr Sharif and his family to offshore companies and the alleged money laundering by them.

Mr Khosa, who once was very close to the Sharif brothers, has revolted against them and announced uniting all factions of the Pakistan Muslim League against the PML-N.

He said his efforts were in progress for the unification of all PML factions, adding that he wanted a united PML which could work for the development and prosperity of the country.

He alleged that the PML-N leadership had always used people for its own interests.

The former governor claimed that rulers had always ignored southern Punjab and Balochistan and deliberately kept these areas backward.

He alleged that people of southern Punjab and Balochistan had always been deprived of their due rights and the present rulers were also promoting corruption in the name of development in these areas.

Mr Khosa said creation of more provinces in the country was need of the hour and necessary for removing the sense of deprivation among people of underdeveloped areas.

Answering a question, he said it was the democratic right of the Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to protest against government’s policies. But, he said, the protest must be in a democratic way.

He condemned attacks on public properties during protest sit-ins and said he could not support undemocratic steps of any party.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2016