Staff Report FAISALABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday criticised the top political leadership of the country for allegedly looting billions of rupees and said “accountability must begin from political heavyweights”. Addressing a public meeting at Faisalabad’s Dhobi Ghat Ground, the PTI chief said that Pakistan must get rid of corruption. “As long as those sitting at the top are corrupt, Pakistan cannot progress. These people need to be held accountable first,” he said. He said the Panama leaks exposed offshore assets of many people, including the Sharif family. “It all started when the Internet database of a law firm was hacked. A group of 150 journalists studied the case and compiled the results in the form of Panama Papers.” Khan said that major opposition parties had asked the prime minister four questions in the wake of the Panama leaks. The Sharif family, he said, owned four hotels in London’s Mayfair area. “Was the money used to buy the hotels earned legally? Were taxes paid on this money? Was the money, which was used to buy the hotels, transferred abroad legally? Where are the papers of the hotels?” The PTI chairman said that people were being forced to pay high taxes. He said, “You people are being cheated. It is your money that is being taken away, not the government’s.” He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government took Rs 5,000 billion foreign loans in the last three years. He said, “No government has taken such a huge loan in the last 60 years. The PML-N government however accomplished this task within first three years of its current tenure.” Referring to minorities, Khan said the Quaid-e-Azam wanted everyone to have equal rights. He said, “Whether you’re Muslim, Hindu, Christian or anyone else, you will have equal rights in Imran’s Pakistan. Everyone will be equal before the law.” Khan said the PTI would hold a protest rally in Lahore on May 23 to show solidarity with farmers. “We will take it to a logical end to expose the corrupt even if we have to walk alone or take to the street again,” the PTI chairman told the gathering. Leaked documents of Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama last month showed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Maryam owned at least three offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. “We will win this war against corruption and everything will become crystal clear in the days to come,” Khan said. The PTI chairman said that Pakistanis had $200 billion in foreign banks and that money had to be brought back. About his own sources of income, he said that he sold his flat in London and bought property in Bani Gala. The people at the rally were shown a video containing statements of the Sharif family and the interior minister about their foreign assets. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed a public rally in the PTI stronghold of Mingora in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On this occasion, Sharif pledged to bring about ‘real change’ in the province. The prime minister, while addressing the public meeting in Mingora as part of his public outreach campaign in the wake of the Panama leaks, announced several development projects for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Though the premier has written to the chief justice of Pakistan to form a judicial commission to investigate the Panama leaks, opposition parties, especially the PTI, were insisting on mutually agreed terms of reference for the judicial commission. The PTI also called upon the prime minister to step down until completion of investigation into the Panama leaks. web .