KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has termed the “unearthed corruption of Rs350 billion just a tip of the iceberg” and alleged that trillions of rupees were looted from the government kitty in Sindh in the name of loans for sick industrial units and then the amounts were deposited in fake bank accounts for the rulers.

“Not only the names of corruption mafia should be put on the exit control list but their bank accounts should also be frozen and a forensic audit of Sindh Bank should be conducted.” These demands were made by PTI Parliamentary Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh and MPA Khurram Sherzaman at a joint press conference on Sindh Assembly premises here on Friday.

They held Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah responsible for corruption in the province and called for his resignation and a probe by a joint investigation team in the Public Sector Development Programmes of the last 10 years.

Murad must resign amid corruption probe, say MPAs

They said that the PTI would table a no-confidence motion against the CM in the Sindh Assembly and try to topple his government claiming that a large number of PPP MPAs were in contact with them.

Mr Sheikh alleged that the Sindh chief minister’s hands were also not clean in Dadu and Thatta sugar mills corruption.

He said that the corruption mafia had also occupied forest land. “Anwar Majeed, who started with two companies, now owns 83,” he said.

The PTI leader asked Mr Shah to tell people who Saleem Bajari was and who was running a network of black money in Sindh. “Ali Hassan Zardari, who used to sell milk in streets, is now a billionaire,” he said.

Mr Sheikh claimed that a large number of PPP MPAs were in contact with them as Asif Ali Zardari would be disqualified for lifetime soon. He said that as a result of the ongoing JIT investigation, more names of corrupt people would be exposed soon as the subsidy given to growers had finally gone into the fake bank accounts.

He said that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who was adult when this corruption began, could not hide himself behind his innocent face.

Mr Sheikh said that if Murad Ali Shah did not resign, they would besiege the Sindh Assembly and table a motion of no-confidence against him.

Khuram Sherzaman said that the JIT report had exposed corruption of the PPP leaders. “The Sindh government has always turned a blind eye to these scams.”

He said that they had tabled a motion on the Sindh Bank scam.

“We will not tolerate Sindh government any more and form a government in the province,” the PTI leader said.

In this respect “PPP people are also on board along with opposition parties,” he claimed.

He said that Asif Zardari stood isolated as not a single political party was with the corruption mafia. He that said references would be filed against Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Faryal Talpur, and asked people who had evidence against the corrupt rulers of Sindh to contact him.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2018