LAHORE, May 11 The Tehrik-i-Istaqlal (TI) has demanded the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) take a suo motu notice of the plundering of national kitty by politicians, army generals and bureaucrats worth billions of rupees and recover the amount for spending it on the welfare of the masses.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, party president Rehmat Khan Wardag said the national wealth looted through corruption and kickbacks as well as written-off loans and deposited in off-shore banks must be brought back to improve the lot of the masses while the apex court also disqualify all these plunderers from contesting for or holding public offices.

It would be the biggest justice the CJP could do for this country and the nation, he added.

Criticising federal minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf for deliberately giving “false statements” in public that Kalabagh Dam project had been scrapped, he said the minister had earlier told the parliament that the project was very much included in the water vision.

Wardag also chided Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for stating that the water reservoir was though in the economic interest of the country, it was harmful on political account.

He said such statements by Punjab leaders smelt of their wish to get votes from smaller provinces ignoring the national interest.

Wardag recalled that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had as prime minister surrendered certain water share of Punjab in the 1991 Water Accord for Balochistan and the NWFP instead of apportioning it for southern Punjab belt but did not get them agree to the all important dam.

He claimed that a sum of Rs30 billion was being spent every year to import furnace oil for independent power producers, which earn a further Rs30 billion profit from the end consumers.