LAHORE: Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday threatened to take former Prime Minister Imran Khan to court over allegation of corruption leveled against him.
Addressing a press conference, the federal minister said “I am on record claiming that during my five-year tenure, I oversaw Rs3,200 billion development expenditure. If someone proves even 32 paisa corruption in it, I will accept any punishment. But if not, Imran (Khan) should get ready for consequences.”
“I am taking you to court where you have to prove that I am involved in corruption,” he told Khan.
“Imran Khan, who presents himself as Mr Clean, is in fact Mr Corrupt. It is him who gave Rs50 billion, laundered and corrupt money traced by the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), to a developer in exchange of some gold and diamond sets. This money, which belonged to the state of Pakistan, was given to an individual through the cabinet decision, which was kept secret even from ministers and they signed the dotted lines.
Taking exception to the Election Commission, Iqbal wondered why it was delaying decision on the foreign funding case. “Has the commission been scared into inaction in the case? If so, it is going to a very bad example: it would open the way for everyone to threaten it into silence. It should announce decision immediately. With so many documentary evidences, what is the commission waiting for.
Iqbal conceded that economic decisions taken by his (PML-N) government hurt it politically and caused an embarrassing defeat in the recent by-elections.
“Yes, we knew these decisions were going to reduce party’s political capital and they have. But, one must not forget who put us into economic straitjacket? It was Imran Khan; let his ministers (Shaukat Tareen or Hafiz Sheikh) deny that it were them who finalized deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which forced the PML-N to take those hard decisions.”
