KASUR: Nawaz Sharif will not go scot-free in the Panama Papers case as many revelations are expected this week, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan claimed on Sunday.

Speaking at a public meeting in Khudian town, in Kasur district, he said the prime minister would find no way to escape if the Qatari prince’s letter turned out to be false or if his daughter turned out to be the owner of the London flats.

“Nawaz Sharif must tell the nation the source of his wealth. Irrespective of the verdict of the apex court, it is for the first time in the country’s history that a prime minister is in the dock,” he said.

Since the administration did not allow the PTI to hold the public meeting at the town’s sports complex, the party organised the gathering on Deepalpur road, near the vegetable market.

Imran Khan alleged that the prime minister had lied in parliament and now he was seeking immunity in the apex court. He claimed four ministers had admitted that the London flats had been purchased in the 1990s.

“No country can make progress amid rampant corruption. China was able to make astounding progress only after coming down on the corrupt. Thousands of officials and 200 ministers were punished before it took the first steps to progress,” the PTI chief observed.

He said when the Sharif family came to power, it owned only one factory, but “within years it now owns 30 factories”.

Imran Khan said it was regrettable that 45 per cent children in Pakistan suffered from malnutrition and other ailments. He made a reference to the case of Zohra Bibi, who died on the floor of a government hospital in Lahore recently. “Many Zohra Bibis die this way in the country whereas the rulers and their children go abroad for treatment.”

The PTI chief alleged that the Sharif brothers had spent “Rs12 billion on their self-projection” whereas a hospital such as Shaukat Khanum was built at a cost of only Rs4bn.

“The masses are reluctant to pay taxes because they deemed the rulers corrupt,” he added.

He said farmers in Pakistan were in a pitiable condition unlike India, which offered cheap fertiliser, insecticides and electricity to its growers.

Mr Khan said he was “waging a war” not against any individual but against corruption. “Had the NAB (National Accountability Bureau) been free and held Nawaz Sharif accountable, there was no need to move a court. The PTI, if given a chance to rule, will make NAB free and independent.”

He threw down the gauntlet to Nawaz Sharif for a debate in the National Assembly and asked him to avoid “abusive language”.

Referring to Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Asfandyar Wali Khan, Imran Khan said they seemed to have “jumped Nawaz Sharif’s drowning ship”.

Addressing the gathering, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid claimed that the next general election would be held this year, and not next year.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the PTI vice chairman, alleged that the administration had closed all roads leading to the venue, but it could not stop the party’s supporters from coming to the meeting.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2017