ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: Opposition members on Wednesday submitted a 500-page resolution as a charge-sheet against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz with their notice of no-confidence motion.
The charge-sheet contains allegations of corruption, violation of constitution, favouritism and failed economic policies.
In the resolution, the opposition members allege that the prime minister is responsible for violations of constitutional mandate and privatisation laws and rules in the privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills as enunciated by the Supreme Court in its judgment. “It is a shame that the prime minister, who himself presided over the CCOP, has refused to resign despite the passage of eight weeks since the initial order of the SC,” says the resolution.
It further says “the PM’s failure to take action against stock brokers of Karachi and Lahore stock exchanges, who are responsible for the crashes of stock market in the years 2001, 2005 and 2006 and who caused a loss of Rs1,500 billion to the investors, establishes his own personal complicity in and profiting by each engineered crash.”
“Is it then a coincidence that the two most important assets of the state that were recently privatised by the government, Pak-Arab Fertiliser and the PSM, should go to prominent stock brokers (Messrs Jahangir Siddiqui and Arif Habib)? That is not a coincidence. These establishments were doled out to associates of the PM. Only in the second attempt has the PM’s design been thwarted by the SC,” it says.
The opposition members allege that the PM is responsible for promoting and encouraging corruption in various ministries and he has failed to take suitable steps to punish or expose those people who were responsible for cement, sugar, wheat scams and sale purchase of railway land and locomotive engines.
The resolution also says that “profit was even made at the cost of the victims of the devastating earthquake by procuring and providing the homeless destitute with substandard tents and shelters.”
It further alleges: “The PM has failed to prevent the Pakistan Army and its associated Defence Housing Authorities from becoming the largest land-owner of state lands in the country. This has been accomplished by forcible eviction of haris, tenants, cultivators and the poor tillers of the soil, and by razing entire villages, throwing out belongings and using physical force and coercion against entire families, including women and children.”
The resolution alleges that the PM has also been a party to the misuse and misapplication of funds entrusted to the Human Development Fund. It says “the sale of six airbus aircraft by PIA and the taking on lease of A310 aircraft has also caused a loss of at least $60 million. The PM is responsible for privatisation of valuable assets of this country such as the Habib Bank, KESC, PTCL, fertiliser plants and other valuable assets at throwaway prices.”
The opposition members state that the national infrastructure continues to degrade on account of neglect as is evident from the Ran-Pathani bridge collapse.
They also blamed the PM for the killings of people in Balochistan and Wana operations.