SUKKUR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, addressing a public meeting at City Point bypass here late on Monday evening, warned that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz founder Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari were hand in glove in plundering the exchequer and siphoning off the country’s wealth into their accounts abroad.

Through corruption and flawed policies they pursued over the last 10 years, they devastated the national economy and trapped the country in a debt of billions of rupees.

Referring to the alleged understanding between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari while they were in London before the infamous Panama Papers leaks scam, Mr Khan said they had actually entered into a clandestine accord, which the PTI chief termed “charter of corruption”.

“We [PTI] will cordon off all their ways [approaching the public wealth],” he said.

He said Nawaz Sharif had resorted to committing record rigging to reach the power corridors in the previous elections.

Mr Khan hailed the Supreme Court for taking appropriate action by ordering placement of the names of Asif Zardari, his sister, Faryal Talpur and others on the exit control list (ECL) in connection with the investigation of alleged corruption of Rs35 billion.

He told the audience that Asif Zardari [during his party’s rule over the country and Sindh] unleashed unbearable atrocities against the people of this province and this included closure of water. “I do not see such abject poverty anywhere in the country that prevails in Sindh,” he said.

He told the people of Sukkur that Khursheed Ahmed Shah [who belongs to the district and is contesting for a National Assembly seat from here] “is actually double Shah”, explaining that the Shah had been playing diplomacy while being the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. “He kept criticising the PML-N while being in the house [National Assembly] and supporting the party outside it,” he said.

Mr Khan stressed that the institutions concerned must look into the sources of his income and ascertain as to “how a meter reader got himself elevated to such a high position”.

He alleged that Khursheed Shah broke all records of corruption in Sukkur and he, along with those PPP men involved in money laundering, must be held accountable and punished for damaging the state.

The PTI chief also described the family of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif as a “corruption company” and named it “Shahbaz & Sons”.

Referring to former PPP lawmaker Faryal Talpur, whose name surfaced in a NAB reference, Mr Khan said he always avoided talking against women but Ms Talpur was widely known for minting money by charging commission against awarding contracts to parties and for providing government jobs to people.

The PTI chief said the masses had got this [July 25] golden opportunity to get rid of all corrupt people and hold them accountable for their misdeeds that had brought suffering to the ordinary man.

PTI candidates from the area Mobeen Ahmed Jatoi and Tahir Hussain Shah and other activists including Iftikhar Ahmed Loond and Pappu Khan Chachar also spoke.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2018