KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the Pakistan Peoples Party has faced ‘bogus’ accountability initiated by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership during their government during which the entire family of Benazir Bhutto, her mother, husband and her close associates had been implicated, but now the PML-N has gone ‘crazy’ when its leadership is being made accountable based on the Panama Papers leaks.

In a ‘rejoinder’ to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s statement, the Sindh chief minister asked him “what’s wrong if the PPP has asked you to be accountable and show the financial sources of the property and business you have established abroad”.

“You always made the PPP leadership accountable and forced them to face fake cases and now when the PPP asks you to respond to Panama Leaks you have gone crazy — this is not fair,” he said.

Recalling the political vision and character of Benazir Bhutto, the chief minister said despite implicating her entire family in ‘concocted’ cases to sideline the PPP leadership, she laid the foundation of political reconciliation in the country just to architect new political working relationship with her opponents.

“It was not a mere reconciliation among different political forces, particularly the PML-N, but it was her commitment to bury the past hatreds developed when the PML-N leadership during their government had implicated her entire family in concocted cases. It seems that the old hatred is still alive in the hearts and minds of the PML-N leadership which is very much visible from their venomous statements.”

The chief minister in the statement issued by the CM House said, “Mian Shahbaz Sharif is still orchestrating the old song of Swiss Banks and SGS case. The SGS was one of the cases that you had framed just to malign the PPP leadership and what happened with it — it bounced back and hit hard on your heads,” he said and added that an alleged tape in which conversation between the then Ehtsab Bench judge of Lahore High Court Justice Malik Qayyum and Ehtsab bureau chief Saifur Rehman had surfaced in which they could be heard discussing the quantum of sentence to be awarded to Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. As a result, Justice Qayyum on the orders of Supreme Court had to resign as a judge of the Lahore High Court. “But, you have no moral courage to step down from politics,” he said.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah claimed that the PML-N framed this ‘fictitious’ case and bribed the then Ehtsab Bench head Justice Qayyum and another ad hoc judge of the LHC.

The Swiss case was also made just to malign and sideline the PPP leadership, he claimed.

“You wanted to be the undisputed king of the country,” he said and asked what happened with the Swiss case. “Your handpicked judge Malik Qayyum in the capacity of Attorney General of Pakistan through a letter to Swiss authorities had withdrawn the case.

“The PML-N government had framed many false and fictitious cases against Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and also implicated her husband Asif Ali Zardari. Mr Zardari languished 11 years in jails and Shaheed Banzir Bhutto kept running from pillar to post to defend the cases in different courts located in different cities over the years,” he said.

“This was the greatness of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto that she forgot your each and every highhandedness and sat with you and signed with you the charter of democracy,” Syed Qaim Ali Shah said and added “she launched politics of reconciliation and paved the way for your return from exile to participate in national politics. It was her contribution, struggle and sacrifice that you are in power today and enjoying the fruits of her political maturity and farsightedness,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2016