Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that it would not be appropriate to target only Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in the shield of Panama leaks.

He was talking exclusively to Daily Times on Monday. He said “If accountability is to be accomplished and corruption is to be eradicated then the assets and bank accounts of some five thousand big people would have to be checked”.

He said that the opposition was just doing political jugglary and point scoring by specifically targeting Nawaz Sharif. The nation knows well that those who were levelling charges against him were not so much clean that they had taken a milk bath. If accountability would be started then these elements would have no place to hide.

The federal minister said that it was not possible to finish cent per cent corruption. However it may be reduced through effective legislation. In democracy the people were the best judge to carry out accountability. They reject the dishonest elements and the persons with comprehensible character lead the nation.

Abbasi was of the view that corruption was present in all the national institutions and if anybody thought that he could finish it with a single finger sign , then such a person must be living in a fool’s paradise.

He said that the functionaries that were working against corruption should keep an eye on the living standards of the people.

If anybody buys an expensive vehicle or a big house , then these organisations should investigate his state of affairs by moving the law against him.

He admitted that like other establishments, corruption was also there in Pakistan State Oil and OGDCL, but the government’s effort was to make a profitable policy for the department instead of chasing corruption . “Despite this when we get any complaint directly , we take action”, the minister said.

Responding to a question Shahid said that it was very difficult to enhance the price of petroleum products in presence of Nawaz Sharif in the PM’s office as the ministry had sent the summary for the increase of Rs 10 in the last three months but all the times the prime minister rejected it.

By keeping in view the international market, the price of petrol should be fixed at Rs 100 per litre in the country. But Nawaz Sharif was not ready to listen this view point.

He said that India earns 42 billion dollars from the taxes levied on petroleum products only, whereas the total budget of Pakistan is 40 billion USD, which the country utilises on development projects.

He told this scribe that Pakistan could not earn even eight billion dollars from the petroleum levy though some black sheep also commit corruption too and that was the reason due to which the load of taxes was shifted to the common man. He said that to increase the national revenue, it was a must to heave the price of petroleum products The PML(N) leader said that it was a tragedy that the real wealthy persons and businessmen did not pay taxes and the government imposes indirect taxes on people to bridge the gap. ” By virtue of non payment of taxes from the rich, the poor face trouble.

He said that the government was endeavouring to streamline the tax system under the dynamic leadership of Nawaz Sharif so that a lesser weight might be put on the poor people. Soon the real people would come into the tax net and people would be relieved from indirect taxes. The PM managed the affairs of the country quite well during his sickness and it was established that only Nawaz Sharif could drag the country out of darkness . The country was moving forward under his headship, he remarked.