Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday termed Transparency International’s recent report on global corruption ‘senseless’ and the opposition an ‘organized mafia’. The minister said at a time when the World Bank had confirmed Pakistan’s economic growth of 5.37% and praised the government’s policies to deal with Covid-19, a ‘baseless’ report was released making headlines. In a tweet, he said the report maintained that the rule of law had declined in Pakistan but nobody knew on what basis it had made the claim. Despite there being no mention of financial corruption in the report, the stories mentioned in the press release were such that they encouraged even a ‘corrupt opposition’ to criticize the incumbent government, said Fawad. Referring to the opposition’s critique, the minister retorted, “It is the glory of the Almighty that the PML-N and Fazlur Rehman call Imran Khan’s government corrupt,” saying such claims were highly hypocritical. Fawad said the government was fighting an organized mafia.
Taking a jibe at the PML-N and JUI-F leadership, Fawad said it was strange that such people were claiming that the present government was corrupt which amounted to spitting in the sky.
He said Nawaz Sharif had kept his ill-gotten wealth in London but he was doing politics in Pakistan.
In response to a tweet of former speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, Fawad said Nawaz Sharif’s bank accountants were in the names of peons and his sons were in England.
The minister also said Nawaz Sharif’s apartments were in London and his daughter was beneficiary and owner of those apartments. Ayaz Sadiq had claimed in a tweet that Nawaz Sharif’s body was in London but his soul was in Pakistan.
