ISLAMABAD: Special Assis­­tant to the Prime Minis­ter on Information and Broad­­casting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Thursday that the present government would not allow corrupt people to escape accountability.

She was addressing a press conference along with the adviser to the PM on industries and commerce at the Press Information Department (PID) here.

Dr Awan held previous governments responsible for the dire economic situation in the country, saying that the economy was heading towards improvement following difficult decisions taken by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.

“The masses are building a new Pakistan by standing beside the government in these testing times,” she said.

Rejecting criticism by opposition parties, she said steps being taken by the government would soon bring about improvement in the country’s economy.

She criticised both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), accusing their leaderships of trying to befool the people of the country.

Dr Awan accused former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari of being involved in corruption.

Criticising the PML-N, she said the party which had never respected the country’s institutions was trying to teach the PTI government the norms of decency and how to respect national institutions. “From Tallal (Chaud­h­ry) to Nihal (Hashmi) only this party has the record of contempt of court notices, and they are teaching us to respect the institutions,” she said.

Earlier, in a series of tweets, Dr Awan criticised both the PML-N and the PPP.

“The flag bearers of dynastic politics are feeling the pain that why Prime Minister Imran Khan rid Pakistan of the dictatorial rule of two families,” she said in one tweet.

“We are releasing masses burden and the economy is improving amid difficult decisions taken by the incumbent government, despite pay­ment of record debt during the financial year 2018-19, the trade deficit was reduced by eight percent while remittances witnessed an increase of nine percent,” she added.

In another tweet, Dr Awan said that under the garb of the Charter of Democracy, the flag-bearers of dynastic politics were trying to save the future of their children in the country’s politics.

Meanwhile, she said that 320 Pakistanis detained in Malaysia had reached the country due to efforts made by the prime minister.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019