ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that Zardari and Sharif families are running the world’s largest money laundering network and described the Charter of Democracy (CoD) as ‘charter of corruption’.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, he said: “Zardari and Nawaz ‘gangs’ have signed a charter of corruption and the extent of corruption was so much that the country’s debt shot up to Rs30 trillion by the end of Nawaz Sharif’s tenure from Rs6tr in 2008 when the PPP came to power.”

The minister said the people of Sindh had suffered the most as development funds went into Asif Ali Zardari’s accounts. In Punjab, Hussain and Hassan Nawaz got all the funds, he claimed. “They have looted the public money,” he said, adding that their way of looting the money was the same and both formed companies abroad which were non-existent and laundered money from development funds.

Mr Chaudhry said that both former prime minister Sharif and former president Zardari had been exposed, adding that investigations against the PPP co-chairman had been initiated in 2015 when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was not in power, but investigation agencies were stopped from proceeding further. However, since institutions had now been made free from political interference, startling revelations had been made, he added.

Says Zardari, Sharifs have world’s largest money laundering network

“It all started with CoD and first cases started to show up in 1992 when Nawaz Sharif came to power, later ‘Surrey Mansion’ came up when Asif Zardari was in power, and now Bilawal [Bhutto-Zardari] sahib is a partner in Park Lane; if you read the book by Hashwani, he has written that Park Lane company was snatched by force from him,” the information minister said.

About Nawaz Sharif’s conviction in the Al-Azizia reference, he said the court just asked the former prime minister where he got the money from to set up Al-Azizia Still Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, but their (PML-N leaders) only response to the sentence was mudslinging.

Mr Chaudhry started his press conference decrying the statement of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal who had equated the PTI with the Functional League and PML-Q which were formed by the establishment.

“Mr Ahsan Iqbal remembers history, but he forgot the 1980s and who imposed the PML-N on the nation. Ahsan Iqbal sahib should also remember the name of Gen Ziaul Haq as his engineering studies were due to the quota allotted by Gen Zia; they were very close to each other, and Mian Sharif, Mian Nawaz and Shahbaz were never even elected councillors before that era.

“Why Mushahid Hussain Syed was sitting beside you [Mr Ahsan] at the press conference as he was the secretary general of PML-Q? But there was no reply to the verdict, except that he said others are thieves too,” the minister added.

He said the living style of other PML-N leaders, including Khawaja Saad Rafique and Shahbaz Sharif, did not match their income. He claimed that Nawaz Sharif’s declared assets were worth Rs10 million in 2001 and the same year they had established Al-Azizia Steel Mills. The court only wanted to know where they got the money from, he said.

“It is our mandate to arrest thieves and hold such people accountable,” he said and denied that the government was dictating NAB’s actions. He said the National Accountability Bureau did not arrest Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam till a verdict on the references against them.

The minister said Shahbaz Sharif was arrested because the evidence was being tampered with. “NAB is not arresting people who are cooperating with the investigations,” he added.

On the occasion, Hammad Azhar, the Minister of State for Revenue, said that instead of responding to the queries put to them, they [PML-N leaders] insisted that Aleema Khan, the sister of Prime Minister Imran Khan should be asked how she took the money abroad. “But she did that in the court; however she was fined for not declaring them in the statement of assets submitted to the Election Commission,” he added.

“They [PML-N and PPP leaders] had considered Pakistan a joint business venture and now they have been exposed,” he said.

Shibli Faraz, Leader of the House in the Senate, said democracy never weakened because of accountability, but strengthened due to accountability and these people were defaming politics as well as politicians.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2018