ISLAMABAD: A debate in the Senate on a report of the special committee on corruption on Tuesday turned into a mudslinging match between the ruling PML-N and the opposition PPP when members of the two parties accused each other of committing massive corruption during their stints in the government.

The members of the PPP and the PML-N also accused the top leadership of the parties, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari, of accumulating wealth through corrupt practices.

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Opposition Leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan highlighted the alleged “mega scams” of the government like Nandipur and Metro bus projects and asked how Nawaz Sharif, who had paid only Rs477 income tax in three years from 1994 to 1996, had become a billionaire.

The remarks were sufficient to provoke the most articulate speaker of the PML-N in the Senate, Mushahidullah Khan, to launch attacks on the PPP and its leadership for its alleged involvement in corrupt practices.

Responding to Mr Ahsan’s allegations against Mr Sharif, the PML-N senator asked him whether he had ever asked Asif Zardari, Faryal Talpur or Dr Asim Hussain about taxes paid by them or how they had accumulated wealth. He also made some personal attacks on Mr Ahsan for his role during the lawyers’ movement.

Stressing the need for self-accountability, Mr Ahsan said corrupt elements had been there in every government and the PPP was not an exception.

He asked the government to come out clean in the Nandipur power project scam, whose cost had escalated from the initial Rs23 billion to Rs84 billion.

He criticised the government for declaring it a “technical issue”.

“It becomes a technical issue when you do it. Had such an issue emerged during our time (in the government), our ministers would have been jailed,” he added.

The PPP leader alleged that a huge amount of $272,000 was being paid on a daily basis to the people at the LNG terminal.

Mushahidullah Khan said an internationally reputed firm, Ferguson and Transparency International, had carried out an audit of the Nandipur project.

But Mr Ahsan took the floor again and said his party rejected such audit reports and called for an investigation into the scam through National Accountability Bureau.

Federal Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif said he and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi were ready to appear before any committee of parliament on the issues of Nandipur and LNG projects.

Earlier taking part in the discussion, the PPP’s Farhatullah Babar said the slogan of accountability would sound hollow without across-the-board accountability by rejecting the notion of “holy cows whether in security establishment or in judiciary” and without an effective law about right to information.

He said the notion of some institutions carrying out accountability through internal mechanisms was a fallacy which had been exposed in recent incidents.

Mr Babar said no one had been held accountable in the cases of alleged smuggling of fissile material to other countries, killing of Osama bin Laden by foreign troops inside Pakistan and the Kargil debacle.

“Where is accountability? We only demolished the compound where Osama bin Laden had been living in Abbottabad when we had been stating that the most wanted man (in the world) was not present in Pakistan,” he added.

Mr Babar criticised the government for not bringing the Right to Information Bill to parliament despite its approval by a committee some 18 months ago.

Later, the house adopted the report of the committee on corruption headed by PML-N’s Javed Abbasi that contained 22 recommendations for eradicating corruption from government departments.

Earlier, the house approved a motion moved by Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq seeking formation of a permanent committee on ethics and draft code of ethics for the members of the Senate.

LOC VIOLATIONS: Winding up the debate on the adjournment motion on continued violation of ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) by Indian troops, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistani forces had been responding and would continue to respond “selectively and effectively” to each incident of violation.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the issue of ceasefire violations by India had been raised at bilateral and international levels.

The Senate unanimously passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Stock Exchange (Corporatisation, Demutualisation and Integration) Amendment Bill 2015.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2015

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