Return looted money, Pakistan PM Imran Khan tells PML-N, PPP

Ghotki - Imran said whenever accountability was launched, opposition parties started a propaganda that democracy was under threat.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday reiterated his government's resolve not to forgive the leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan Peoples Party unless they pay back the looted public money.
"I challenge you today. Do whatever you want to do, get united or anything else. We will not leave you. This nation will not pardon you. You have only one way out - pay back public money, then we will leave you," the prime minister said while addressing a public gathering here in the industrial city of Sindh province.
Besides a huge number of people, the event was attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Grand Democratic Alliance leader, including Zulfiqar Mirza and Arbab Ghulam Rahim, and MPA Ali Gohar Mahar.
Referring to the train march by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto, the prime minister said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had staged a sit-in to demand fair elections, not to conceal its corruption.
The PPP paid Rs2,000 per head to the people to join the train march because it was not meant for people's benefit rather to cover corruption, he added.
Imran said whenever accountability was launched, opposition parties started a propaganda that democracy was under threat. It was not democracy but their corruption that was under threat, he added.
The prime minister said in the past, both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari used to taunt each other as corrupt but now both had joined hands against his government to save their corruption.
Imran told the gathering that during the last 10 years the Sindh government received Rs234 billion in gas royalty alone, but the living condition of the people in Ghotki, which produced 70 per cent of gas, remained unchanged. He said the money which was supposed to be spent on people, went into fake accounts.
"The money for your development should have come from the province, as the centre had given them the funds," he said. "Everyone should ask how much of the share of royalties was given to Ghotki." "This is corruption," he said
Imran said due to corruption, country's debt had swelled from Rs6,000 billion to Rs30,000 billion within 10 years.
He said Pakistan once had been the fastest growing economy in Asia and even South Korea had adopted Pakistan's development model but now it (Pakistan) was under record burden of debt. The country had to pay Rs6 billion a day as mark-up of the loans.
Imran said Sindh should have been the most developed province as country's financial capital Karachi is part of it, most of gas fields are situated here in addition to having fertile agriculture lands. But, interior Sindh was the poorest area in Pakistan due to endemic corruption, he added.
The prime minister assured the gathering of visiting Sindh more often to ensure its uplift on a par with other areas.

• Pakistan