UPPER DIR: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said people will not accept the controversial Joint Investigation Team report and ‘one-sided’ accountability against the elected premier.

Addressing a public gathering at the site of the Lowari Tunnel on Thursday, he questioned the intention behind investigation against him and his family. “Let me warn the PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf] and those politicians who are pressing for my accountability that nobody in Pakistan will accept this kind of accountability. I say it with guarantee,” he said.

“This is not accountability. This is exploitation,” he added.

PTV airs PM’s edited speech, apparently to remove his remarks against JIT

The prime minister said the head of the JIT gave undue favour to his cousin, who was running a one-man company in a single room in London, by paying him over 49,000 pounds for a small task.

Pointing to the audience, he said it was “your money but they misused it”. He claimed that the company owner had been a member of the PTI, asking whether they wanted to do his accountability through such type of people. He wondered how the opponents were demanding his accountability, saying they should instead be held answerable and that too publicly.

“All others are pious angels? Are they Sadiq and Ameen?” he asked in an attempt to tell people that he was being singled out.

Referring to the demand for his resignation by opposition parties, he said they had been begging for his resignation every morning and every evening.

Taunting the PTI’s provincial government for its alleged failure to carry out development, he said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was doing that job. “They boasted about making a new Pakistan. At least show us a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

Mr Sharif said it was him who had been launching power projects and constructing new roads and motorways.

Lowari Tunnel

Prime Minister Sharif formally inaugurated the 8.5km-long Lowari Tunnel that was completed in 12 years at a cost of Rs28 billion.

The tunnel will connect landlocked Chitral district with the rest of the country round the year in addition to future prospects of road access to Central Asian Republics. The tunnel is bypassing the 10,400-foot-high pass that has a zigzag dirt road marked by dozens of dangerous hairpin curves.

Syed Irfan Raza adds from Islamabad: The state-run PTV televised edited speech of Prime Minister Sharif on the occasion of the Lowari Tunnel’s inauguration, apparently to remove his remarks against the JIT.

Private TV channels later ran news that the speech was edited because the prime minister’s media managers were well aware that he would lash out at the JIT in his address and pass some harsh comments that could be noticed by the Supreme Court.

However, a source in Pakistan Television said it was a general practice that the prime minister’s speech was televised live but it had been notice that in some occasions ‘Go, Nawaz go’ slogans were raised by the crowd and, therefore, his speech was aired as-live pattern with a gap of at least five minutes.

In a portion of his speech that was reportedly not televised, the prime minister criticised the JIT and its members. “The head of the JIT has awarded over Rs5 million contract to one-man firm owned by his cousin in London on 35 per cent discount. Who had fixed the amount on which 35pc discount has been given. For this petty and fraud contract people’s hard-earned money was wasted. The members of the JIT are acting as if they are ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ like angels. An owner of a London-based firm was a member of the PTI.” Several attempts were made to contact the prime minister’s spokesman Musadiq Malik and Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb for their comments on the matter, but they did not respond to phone calls and text messages.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017