MULTAN: Veteran politician Javed Hashmi claims that he is being threatened with kidnapping of his children and that he has evidence to prove his claim.

Talking to the media here on Wednesday, the senior politician said he always respected state institutions and struggled for strengthening them during his entire political career.

“My children are joining the army, but I’m being accused of hating the armed forces,” he claimed.

He said that during the first 100 days of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, the hardships of the masses had increased 100 times. Accountability should be conducted across the board and politicians, bureaucrats and security agencies should all be held accountable, he asserted.

“Everyone plundered this country ruthlessly. People like Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique are being held accountable, and whoever switches their loyalties enjoys benefits,” he added.

He further claimed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was not an accountability institute nor was it even constituted for the purpose; its only purpose was to “make or break” political parties.

“I had said in the Supreme Court that it is not NAB rather it is aib (flaw). I provided the details of my assets to the NAB and it did not do anything against me nor will it be able to in future,” he said.

He said the political leadership never ended despite facing victimisation or being sent behind bars.

“The political party which they are trying to wipe out still exists. The children of politicians are replacing their parents, while the children of four dictators are nowhere because the masses always voted for politicians,” he added.

Hashmi claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan did not enjoy any power and his “only task was to victimise political opponents”.

He also believed that the PM should have not talked about early elections.

“Imran Khan can dissolve the government if he cannot sleep peacefully,” he added.

He said both the PML-N and the PPP were asking the government to create a south Punjab province.

“No political party is against the creation of south Punjab province but the PTI government will never make south Punjab a province,” he said.

PTCL: The Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) upgrades Gulgasht and New Multan exchanges through its Network Transformation Project in Multan on Wednesday.

According to an official handout under the project, the PTCL has planned to transform 100 exchanges across Pakistan, of which 53 have already been upgraded. The new and improved network enables customers to enjoy a faster, more reliable and high speed unlimited internet.

It stated that to offer better customer experience, the turnaround time for complaint resolution has been reduced considerably.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2018