ISLAMABAD: War of words between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party over corruption escalated on Monday when Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan accused former president Asif Ali Zardari of owning palaces in Dubai and property in two other countries and asked Mr Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to declare their assets.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating a National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) centre here, the minister said Mr Zardari owned two to three palaces in Dubai besides property in the United Kingdom and the United States.

“The PPP’s campaign against corruption will be just like the Bharatiya Janata Party announcing that it will protect rights of Muslims in India,” he said

About Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s recent statement against the PPP, he said Mr Sharif had said nothing wrong and reaction to his remarks was ridiculous.

Former president accused of owning palaces in Dubai and property in UK and US

Referring to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s remarks that he would stand with Mr Bhutto-Zardari on the same container during his coming anti-corruption campaign, he advised Mr Khan to first ask the PPP chairman about the ownership of the Surrey Palace in the UK, a precious diamond necklace and $60 million in assets frozen for years and finally released by Swiss banks, besides other property abroad.

“The PTI chief should seek to know the source of income used to purchase valuable property outside Pakistan,” he said.

Chaudhry Nisar said Mr Zardari and Mr Bhutto-Zardari were the only leaders except Altaf Hussain who had never made their assets public. He said it was wrong to claim that Mr Zardari had been acquitted in all the cases. Initially he sought refuge behind the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf. After the NRO was declared void by the court, he brought National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman of his choice.

“We appointed NAB chairman in consultation with the opposition, but they [the PPP government] picked their cronies for the posts of NAB chief and prosecutor, law minister and attorney general,” the minister said. “The attorney general and the prosecutor were used to withdraw cases on behalf of the state.”

He also alluded to a secret mission allegedly carried out by the then Pakistan’s high commissioner in the UK to remove documents related to a money laundering case against Mr Zardari.

He said besides questioning the prime minister over Panama Papers leaks, Mr Bhutto-Zardari should ask his father where the money used to purchase Surrey Palace in the UK, three palaces in Dubai and other expensive property abroad came from.

Chaudhry Nisar said he had no enmity with the PPP and respected some senior leaders of the party, including Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, Farhatullah Babar and Qamar Zaman Kaira.

In a prompt reaction, PPP Information Secretary Kaira asked the minister to desist from levelling “baseless and false” allegations and challenged him to bring any evidence against the PPP leadership before a court of law. In a rejoinder, he said money laundering by the Sharif family could not be concealed by counter allegations.

NIC verification

About the verification campaign of national identity cards (NICs), Chaudhry Nisar said about 2,000 SMS received by Nadra so far had exposed registration of 5,000 outsiders with families they did not belong to. The registration was aimed at obtaining NICs by foreigners or another passport for Pakistani nationals.

After Eid, he said, Nadra will start sending SMS to identify outsiders fraudulently registered with unrelated families.

In the first phase, he said, SMS would be sent to 30 million heads of families and ultimately the entire population of the country would be covered.

The minister vowed to continue with the drive, saying it was a matter involving national security as fake identity cards could be used by aliens to get passports or jobs in sensitive organisations.

Answering a question, he said the army would be deployed in and outside polling stations during the coming general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). He said a force of 20,000 personnel from army and law enforcement agencies would be provided to the AJK administration.

He said the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been asked to contribute personnel for the purpose because the army was also required for deployment to deal with possible floods.

He rejected the apprehensions of rigging in AJK elections by PML-N, pointing out that PPP was in power in the AJK. He said free and fair polls in Azad Kashmir were of great significance as it would be an opportunity to send out a message to the world to differentiate between free and fair polls in the AJK and sham elections in Occupied Kashmir.

Replying to another question, he claimed that a loss of billions of rupees had been caused to the national exchequer in an Islamabad property scam. He said huge property on the Constitution Avenue had been sold out for peanuts and apartments given for free to some influential personalities.

Without naming Makhdoom Ali Khan, he said the other side was being represented in court by a former attorney general who managed to get long adjournments. In the last hearing of the case, he obtained a two-month adjournment on the plea that he was going abroad, but after a few days he was seen on the premises of the Islamabad High Court.

About the kidnapping of the son of the Sindh High Court’s chief justice and murder of qawwal Amjad Sabri recently in Karachi, he said a headway had been made in one of the two cases. He said the two cases were a challenge for security and intelligence agencies and expressed the confidence that the cases would be taken to their logical conclusion.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2016