LAHORE: Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has claimed that a recent hearing of the Supreme Court on the Panama Papers case proved that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was targeted at the behest of some judges and generals.

He claimed that the recent hearing also termed the judgment disqualifying Mr Sharif for life and the judgment on the Panama Case a joke.

“A former PM was sentenced for not revealing a salary in his assets after not getting it from his son.”

Mr Iqbal pointed out that the judgment had created a political crisis in the country and under a conspiracy the judges and generals had created delusional reality on social media and spread it among the masses.

He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the new building of the Punjab University Institute of Energy and Environmental Engineering here on Tuesday.

Says a conspiracy was hatched to create delusional reality through social media

The minister said the digital media had become a weapon nowadays and it was used for creating a new metaverse to establish a new world.

“We should progress in IT and technology and learn the tools and we should also take it in mind that by using this, someone can take control of us.”

The minister said the government had recently spent Rs29bn on various development projects and inaugurated universities in Gwadar and Pishin. He added that the country was facing an economic heart attack and they would have to change their lifestyle; otherwise, the situation could get worse.

“The focus should be on five Es including exports, E-Pakistan, equity, and environmental progress.” He said circular debt was causing problems for the economy of the country due to the purchase of oil in dollars and it reached Rs250bn and they could face a difficult situation due to this debt.

Mr Iqbal said the security and development of nations depended on knowledge and technology for which the teachers and students of universities should help in solving Pakistan’s national problems through laboratories.

He said when the PML-N government came into power in 2013, there was an energy crisis in the country, terrorism and the economic crisis but the party government not only eradicated terrorism from the country, it added 11,000 megawatts to the power system to overcome the energy crisis and reduced load shedding to zero, especially, the life of Karachi, the city of lights, was restored.

Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairperson Prof Dr Shahid Munir said USD 17bn were being spent on importing diesel, furnace oil, LNG and RLNG and if the same money was spent on Pakistan energy projects, it would improve the economy. He said the Institute of Energy and Environmental Engineering had the world’s best laboratories for higher education and research.

PU Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Mahmood said that with the support of the government, they were trying to give very affordable education to the poor students. He demanded the government increase the budget of the HEC.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2023