Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians vice-president Senator Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday that General Ziaul Haq had returned the Ittefaq Foundry to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family for a mere Re1. She made these remarks in a statement released in response to a speech delivered by PM Sharif in Sialkot. Senator Rehman asked, “Why doesn’t Nawaz Sharif tell the nation that Ziaul Haq also gave him millions at that time?” Further, the senator asked if the prime minister was in a state of financial distress, how did he afford the luxurious properties abroad? She said the Sharif family’s corruption during the 1990s now stood exposed. “He should take the country out of crises and ensure accountability,” she said. She said it was unfortunate that the PM was referring to the ongoing trial in the matter of Panama Papers leaks as just a ‘spectacle’. “If all of this is a spectacle, they [the Sharif family] should end it by providing the money trail for their London flats,” she said. Senator Rehman said that government had itself made the JIT controversial. “They do politics over the JIT in front of the Supreme Court every day,” she added. She said a few days back the ruling party was comparing the Sharifs with Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto. “Let me remind them, there is no match between the Bhuttos and the Sharifs,” she said. “Shaheed Bhutto did not sign an agreement with a dictator to flee from the country. Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto bravely faced fabricated cases against her in every court of the country. PPP has always respected court’s decisions – now it is your turn,” she said. The Senator said the PML-N leaders were not facing any ‘political revenge’, rather they were being held accountable for their actions. “The PM claims that he has improved trade and industry in the country. Yet, our foreign trade deficit has reached $99 billion. It seems that Sharif family’s own businesses are flourishing and his [the PM’s] advisers are misguiding him on national statistics,” she said. Senator Rehman said the country was facing 16-8 hours of power outages and the government is claiming to have ended load shedding. All projects inaugurated by the PMLN had been initiated by the PPP government, she added. Published in Daily Times, July 20th , 2017.