Daily Times

In a reaction to the accountability court’s verdict in the Avenfield reference case against the Sharif family, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Friday said that the powerful were being held accountable for the first time ever in Pakistan.

Addressing a big rally in Swat after the verdict, Khan said the children of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had given contradictory statements about owning apartments in London.

Referring to the verdict of accountability court against Sharif family, he said it was of significant importance and would set a new trend as powerful rulers were no more above the law. Imran added that July 26 would see the dawn of a ‘new Pakistan’.

The PTI chief stated that Nawaz’s son had accepted ownership of the London properties on television.

Imran also lamented the lodging of several cases against him in a “bid to muzzle” his struggle in exposing the Sharif family’s corruption. He criticised both Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Zardari for “destroying” state institutions, and added that he had joined politics to rid the country of corruption.

Earlier, speaking at a rally in Lower Dir before the Avenfield reference verdict was announced, Imran labelled corruption as the country’s biggest problem.

“Corruption was and remains Pakistan’s biggest plague,” he addressed the public in Lower Dir, referring to the imminent verdict in Avenfield reference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

He continued his tirade against the Sharif family, saying “These [corrupt rulers] have stolen the nation’s money and laundered it abroad. What they earn [during power], a common labourer cannot even earn in his lifetime,” Imran said. Taking a jibe at the former chief minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, the PTI chairman called Nawaz’s younger brother “the country’s biggest showman”.

“Shehbaz was hiding in his room when rain lashed Lahore,” Imran remarked. “He is not holding rallies [anymore] because he knows people will question him.”

Drawing attention to the human development carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during PTI’s tenure, the cricketer-turned-politician said the other provinces wanted to replicate the revolutionised police, health and education system of KP. Earlier in the day, Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to 11 years in prison and slapped a £8 million fine in the Avenfield properties reference on Friday while his daughter Maryam was sentenced to eight years with a £2 million fine.

Published in Daily Times, July 7^th 2018.