ISLAMABAD: Outspoken Mushahidullah Khan of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz hit out on Thursday at opposition parties — mainly the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf — for implicating Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers leaks scam.

In his speech in the Senate, he also made some personal attacks on the opposition leaders, particularly PTI chairman Imran Khan.

On the other hand, the opposition members staged a token walkout to lodge their protest over continued absence of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar from the house during the budget debate. The walkout was announced by Opposition Leader Aitzaz Ahsan after another PPP leader Babar Awan drew the attention of the house to Mr Dar’s absence.

Taking part in the budget debate as a last speaker in the Senate, Mushahidullah Khan alleged that the PPP and the PTI governments in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, respectively, had failed to deliver despite getting a huge amount from the federal divisible pool.

He said the two provincial governments received Rs2,000 billion from the federal government, but they had failed to launch even a single mega project in their respective provinces.

The PML-N senator said there was no justification for criticism of the projects being executed by the Punjab government for the benefit of people.

He said the PPP had lost the general elections in Punjab for its criticism of the metro bus and other people welfare projects. The people knew those who had looted the country with both hands, he added.

Mr Khan said that on one hand the PPP and the PTI were criticising the federal government for allowing a 10 per cent increase in the salaries of government employees and raising the minimum wage to Rs14,000, on the other the provincial governments of both parties in their budgets had also made the same announcements.

“How does a wrong step in the federation become right in the provinces?” he asked.

He termed Imran Khan “the founder of offshore companies”. He said the opposition was demanding accountability of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif despite the fact that the Panama Papers did not contain their names.

He said that the names of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Rehman Malik, Imran Khan, Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan had appeared in the Panama Papers instead.

The PML-N senator said the opposition was seeking explanation from the prime minister for purchasing one flat in London, ignoring the fact that PTI’s Aleem Khan owned four flats abroad and former president Gen Pervez Musharraf had properties in the US, Dubai and London. He said everyone knew that who owned the Surrey Palace. Without naming property tycoon Malik Riaz of Bahria Town, he said someone had gifted a house in Lahore worth Rs6bn to Asif Zardari.

He expressed surprise over the opposition’s move to implicate the Sharif family, which had been doing businesses before partition, and not making a hue and cry over those who did not even have known sources of income.

Praising Mr Sharif, he declared that no one could cause any damage to him. “These people cannot compete with Nawaz Sharif. They want to enter the power corridor through the backdoor and negative tactics. First you need to clean your black faces and hands,” he said.

He said those preparing for another sit-in were “facilitators” of those international players who were conspiring against Pakistan.

Mr Khan claimed that it was the PML-N government which had put the country on the right path by ensuring peace in Karachi and other areas of the country.

Later, former finance minister of the PPP government and Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance Salim Mandviwalla, while presenting the report of the committee on the budget, criticised Mushahidullah Khan for making a political speech during the budget debate.

The PPP senator said the country was being run through foreign loans and the country was heading “towards a point of no return”.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016