KARACHI: Comparing and contrasting his case leading to his ouster in 2017 with that of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) foreign funding case, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has questioned why no action has been taken against the ruling PTI for several years even when people have been protesting against ‘injustice’.

In a video message posted on Saturday on his Twitter account days after the PTI’s claim that the agents managing the two US companies registered on Imran Khan’s orders were responsible for any illegal fund collection for the party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo appealed to men and women to join the opposition’s rally as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would protest in front of the Islamabad office of the Election Commission of Pakistan on Jan 19 (tomorrow).

The deposed premier, who has been staying in London for more than a year on medical grounds after being convicted by a court, questioned why the ECP was not taking action when the evidence was clear in the PTI’s foreign funding case.

He remarked that people were protesting against the ECP’s “negligence” in fulfilling its constitutional duties as Prime Minister Imran Khan was allegedly using delaying tactics and ignoring the ECP directions.

Urges people to join PDM protest outside ECP office tomorrow

The PML-N supreme leader recalled the developments leading to his ouster and highlighted the alleged differences in the way he had been treated and how the foreign funding case was being treated. He particularly mentio­ned the “haste” in which matters proceeded to oust him. He said a joint investigation team (JIT) inc­luding Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence officials was constituted and ord­ered to file a report within 60 days. “Then the haste with which the verdict was issued in the Pan­ama case, and a prime minister was dismissed on the basis of an Iqama. You remember this, right?” He said the accountability court was directed to issue a decision in six months and the tenure of judge Mohammad Bashir, who convicted the Sharif family in Avenfield properties references, was also extended.

“But this is one side of the picture. Let’s look at the other side,” he said before drawing a comparison with the PTI’s foreign funding case.

The opposition party leader said the foreign funding case was not filed by any other party but a founding member of the PTI himself. He said the case has been pending since 2014, with 70 hearings so far.

“Imran Khan, the man wearing the medal and raising the slogan of being sadiq and ameen, who did not tire when saying that accountability should begin with him [...] has now become the biggest obstacle for justice,” he said, adding that Mr Khan had allegedly been using delaying tactics in the foreign funding case.

Four years after the filing of the case, the ECP formed a scrutiny committee in March 2018 with the directive that a report be submitted within 30 days. “Around two-and-a-half years later, there is still no report,” he pointed out.

Amid the rising protests against the PTI government, Mr Khan finally accepted after six years that there were irregularities related to his party’s funding, ex-PM Sharif said. However, the PTI chairman put the responsibility of this on his agents and said that they must have done this, he said, alleging that there were two companies registered in the US on Mr Khan’s directives and were running under his watch.

He said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had given the ECP information about 23 accounts, 15 of which the premier hid and did not include in the report given to the commission. “He did not disclose the total amount, the source, and did not give a money trail or receipts,” he said, adding that the nation wanted to know how the money was accumulated and where it went.

“If there is no corruption, then why was it hidden? Do these suspect accounts not come under the crime of money laundering? Where is the money trail?” he reiterated.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2021