MULTAN, Oct 29: Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that the current government had broken all records of corruption and there was a need that all political parties should unite on a single agenda against corruption.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Mr Qureshi said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were organising rallies only against corruption and bad governance.

“Even United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken about corruption in her press conference. According to a report of the IMF, Pakistan will not be able to meet its budget targets and this is exactly what I had said while taking part in the budget debate in the National Assembly that such targets can not be achieved,” the former foreign minister said.

He said that he would meet the leadership of all political parties that were struggling against corruption including PML-N, PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).

He said that Faisal Saleh Hayat’s statement in the Supreme Court regarding corruption in rental power projects needed clarification from PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

“If the statement of Mr Hayat is correct, PML-Q should leave the government; and if it is not, the party president (Shujaat) should ask the prime minister to take action against Mr Hayat,” he said.

He said that he had also identified corrupt elements in the government while those people were being made heads of institutions who did not have any experience of running such institutions.

He said that yearly volume of corruption in the country was Rs1,200 billion while the volume of tax theft was Rs1,900 billion and total 40 percent of total budget is being eaten up by corrupt elements.

He said the government had injected Rs1,000 billion as bailouts into various departments but of little avail.

“Electricity line losses are 27 per cent while an increasing trend in electricity theft is being witnessed,” he added.

He said that allegations levelled against the PML-N for using state machinery in Friday’s rally and compelling officials to attend the same should be investigated along with similar allegations of using state machinery in a public gathering addressed by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani at Billi Wala on Oct 1.

“Resources of National Highway Authority, district government and Multan Electric Power Company were allegedly utilised to make the Billi Wala public gathering a success,” he added.

He said that any idiot would have advised seeking MQM’s public support through a rally in favour of President Asif Ali Zardari as it would further increase political tension.