LAHORE: Responding to allegations of corruption in the Multan Metro Bus project, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday challenged his detractors to come up with evidence to substantiate their claims within 48 hours.

“Put up or shut up…come out with evidence within 48 hours into the allegations that I had received Rs3 billion kickbacks and hang me for corruption, otherwise the nation must hold the accusers accountable,” an emotionally-charged Shahbaz told a press conference.

The presser came in response to a programme aired on ARY News TV a few days ago in which it was alleged that Shahbaz had received $17m as kickbacks for awarding the contract of phase-III of the Multan Metro Bus project to a Chinese company — Capital Engineering Limited Company.

At a public meeting in Chakwal the other day, PTI chief Imran Khan had announced had he would move a reference against the Punjab chief minister with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding the Multan Metro case.

PTI demands Punjab CM’s resignation for alleged corruption in Multan Metro Bus project

“The ARY News channel is doing extremely baseless propaganda, falsifying and distorting facts regarding the Multan Metro. Like in the past, I had tried to ignore this and my colleagues had responded to the allegations for a few days. But, today, I decided to make everything crystal clear,” the chief minister railed.

He insisted that there was no company going by that name that had been, directly or indirectly, given a contract in any of the nine phases of the transport project.

The chief minister denied that he had written a commendation certificate for a Chinese company and termed the document being circulated on social media a “forged” one, which had carried an incorrect diary number and unlike the official practice had been written in block letters.

He offered himself up for accountability for all the projects executed during his three terms in office, adding that he was ready even to offer his corpse for hanging after death if he was found to be involved in corruption worth a single penny.

Shahbaz lamented that the defamation law was so weak that Imran Khan, PTI leader Jehangir Tareen and other political rivals had not even bothered to respond to the cases he had filed earlier regarding various allegations they had levelled against him in the past.

He alleged that certain people who had gotten their bank loans written off and grabbed lands from the poor — referring to Jehangir Tareen and Abdul Aleem Khan respectively — were behind the corruption propaganda against him.

He parried a question when asked if he, like his political rivals, would urge the apex court to take suo motu notice of the allegations in the Multan Metro case, and reiterated that the ARY should come up with evidence (to substantiate their allegation) within 48 hours as a legal notice had been served to the TV channel and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who had joined the libellous programme as an analyst.

Separately, the PTI has demanded that the Punjab chief minister must resign in the light of his alleged involvement in the Rs1.79bn corruption case, and urged the Supreme Court to constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate corruption allegations against him.

Speaking at a news conference held at the Punjab Assembly’s committee room on Wednesday, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said the chief minister had stated several times that he would quit politics, if proved corrupt. He added that China’s Securities Regulatory Commission had finally pointed out the corruption.

Mansoor Malik in Lahore also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2017