LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Punjab, says that the publicity of Maryam Nawaz has been exposed as a facade hiding a deeper picture of corruption.

With each passing day, a new scandal surfaces, a fresh revelation emerges and a new plundering scheme drains the hard-earned money of the public, party’s Punjab spokesperson Shayan Bashir said in a statement on Friday.

He stated that embezzlement of billions of rupees in the Ambulance Service Programme was a shameful and unforgivable act.

“The government of Punjab, in collusion with a favoured company, carried out blatant looting of Rs1.47bn under the guise of public welfare. Rules and regulations were completely ignored, causing immense damage to the national exchequer.”

Mr Shayan added that swindling billions in the name of ambulance services had exposed the true nature and deceitful face behind Maryam’s lofty claims.

“When a critical project, one that concerns human lives, falls victim to corruption, it is not hard to imagine the state of other departments.”

The spokesman said this was not mere negligence; it was organised and criminal corruption. The company that was initially declared technically incompetent and unfit was later unjustifiably favoured by blatantly discarding official procedures, he said and added that the audit report objected to the facts that there was no computerised accounting system in place, no organised record existed for payments, tax deductions, penalties or vouchers; evidence of only Rs45m in expenditures was submitted despite the contract’s total value being Rs1.47bn.

Shayan Bashir alleged that fake documents worth Rs5m were submitted to obtain the contract and the orders amounting to Rs45.84m were used to falsely show performance worth Rs500m.

The PTI spokesman claimed that the financial records were intentionally distorted to make any investigation nearly impossible.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2025