Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leader Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday rejected the claims of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, wherein the ruling party had alleged that the PML-N had engaged in Rs3,200 billion worth of corruption.
Addressing a presser alongside other party leaders, he challenged the PTI to prove even 32 paisas of corruption. “A new scandal was created against me and Shehbaz Sharif yesterday, in which it was said that my brother was awarded contracts,” he added.
The PML-N secretary-general asserted that there had been no political prisoners or acts of political revenge during the PML-N era. He vowed to fight the false claims.
“The country’s debt increased by more than Rs1 trillion, people are witnessing the worst inflation,” he stated on the occasion. Moreover, he alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan was a “patron” of the mafia.
Iqbal said that it was the PML-N’s mistake that no action was taken against Imran Khan and PTI in their time. He added that PTI leaders “should have been sent to jail and punished”.
Iqbal claimed to give more income tax than the PM, adding that he lived in a rental home whlle Imran lived in more luxurious accommodations.
PML-N stalwart Marriyum Aurangzeb noted that after Lahore’s National Accountability Bureau, now Rawalpindi’s NAB has summoned the PML-N leadership.
“This is a corrupt gang whose patron is Imran Khan,” Aurangzeb said.
She questioned why the mastermind behind projects worth Rs3.3 trillion has been accused of planting 4.5 million saplings. “The NAB-Niazi nexus can not prove a penny’s worth of corruption,” she claimed.
Discussing the performance of PTI, Aurangzeb said that Lahore is “barren” and Punjab has been turned into a “heap of garbage”.
Aurangzeb further said: “Those who sold off the country are looking into contracts given by Shahbaz Sharif to Ahsan Iqbal’s brother.”
She added that those who fill the pockets of the “mafia” are rewarded and “after the NAB-Niazi nexus, an Imran-FIA nexus has been established”.
Aurangzeb said that in the last three years, NAB, Imran Khan, and Shahzad Akbar all tried to prove corruption allegations against PML-N leaders but none were successful.
Replying to the opposition party’s statement, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill in a video response said that Marriyum Aurangzeb is saying that the PML-N was called out for “only Rs450 million”.
“Did the 450 million belong to someone’s father? Did they [the PML-N leadership] bring the money from home that they cannot be questioned?” Gill asked.
He added that the “Nawaz Sharif mindset” is still prevalent today.
Gill alleged that the “work of a gardener” was given to Ahsan Iqbal’s brother for hundreds of millions.
The PM’s aide asked whether one is to actually believe that Shahbaz Sharif “saved Rs1,000 billion for himself and his sons”.
Gill accused Ahsan Iqbal of awarding several contracts to his brother when he was the Minister of Planning.
“All these people will have to answer [for their crimes],” he said.
