Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Opposition has decided to give a tough time to the PML N government in the coming session of the national assembly as they again submitted a privilege motion in the house against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and said that the PM did not tell the truth to the assembly in the Panama case.

The privilege motion was been submitted on Thursday with the signature of opposition leaders Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Naveed Qamar, PTI members Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Shireen Mazari, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah of Jamat e Islami, Ghulam Ahmad Bilore of ANP and Aftab Sher Pao of Qaumi Watan party. MQM Pakistan did not support this motion.

The plea taken by the prime minister’s lawyer in the supreme court on16 January to do away with the PM speech delivered in the national assembly while explaining the trail of funds used to purchase properties in London and elsewhere as mentioned in the Panama Papers using article 66 as a shield, are an admission that the prime minister did not tell the truth to the assembly.

The motion further says that the PM, while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on 16 May 2016 had explained the trail of funds used to purchase property in one of the most expensive areas of London. In that statement, the PM revealed the trail of money.

The opposition claims that the prime minister willfully deceived the House on the issue, which is clear case of contempt of the house. The motion said the opposition added in the motion that as per article 91(6)of the constitution, the prime minister and cabinet are collectively responsible to the parliament and have to state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

In the end, the motion says that this was a blatant breach of the privilege of the whole house, and the matter should immediately be taken up for discussion and action. It may be mentioned here that in last session, PPP and PTI had submitted the privilege motion against the prime minister, but Speaker National Assembly killed them in the chamber and the opposition was not allowed to present them in the house.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday said Nawaz Sharif was a dacoit and a corrupt person who has built 30 factories through corruption. He said this while talking to reporters outside the Supreme Court.

Imran Khan said, “PML-N ministers attack me daily and they think that they will save Nawaz Sharif by using abusive language against me.” He underlined that Maryam Safdar first denied reports about her properties outside Pakistan during an interview in 2011 but in 2016, after Panamagate, she accepted ownership of her Mayfair flats.

“The prime minister of any country in the world is the custodian of his nation and he runs his country with honesty. In America, Richard Nixon stepped down on phone tapping charges. The Brazilian Prime Minister had to resign from her office on providing false statistics in budget. In the west, Sadiq and Amin clauses are put to practice and everyone is held accountable for corruption and deceit.”

The cricketer-turned-politician underlined that Nawaz Sharif’s counsel had not given any evidence of the money trail so far and efforts were being made to hide behind parliamentary immunity. Imran said the Supreme Court (SC) itself accepted that the Panama case was a unique case.

To a question, he said the Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had threatened the SC by saying that if the verdict was against Nawaz, they would not accept it. “This is the same party which attacked the Supreme Court.”

He said, “The court has sought verification from us but we have only one document in which Maryam Safdar is the owner of the Mayfair flats.” Imran said the SC’s verdict would pave the way for a “Naya Pakistan” and the corrupt would be flushed out of the country.