ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has challenged the federal government to disclose the names of persons whose “ill-gotten’ wealth worth 400 million pounds has been seized abroad as a result of the government’s efforts — as claimed by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Barrister Shahzad Akbar.

In case of its failure to reveal the names, the PPP has demanded an apology from the government and sacking of the special assistant.

It is worth mentioning that a few days back Barrister Akbar claimed that because of the efforts made by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government foreign bank accounts of some politicians had been frozen.

However, he did not disclose the names of those politicians or give the list of countries and banks in which those accounts existed.

PPP leader Farhatullah Babar, while talking to Dawn, said that the special assistant had claimed that 400 million pounds of politicians in foreign bank accounts had been seized.

PML-N claims agreements for sharing information about Pakistanis’ foreign accounts were signed by its govt, not PTI’s

He said the government should make the names of those politicians public and provide details of amounts, banks and countries involved. In case of failure, the government should apologise to the nation and sack the special assistant, he added.

Rejecting a claim of Prime Minister Imran Khan that his government has made agreements with 26 countries for the information exchange about the wealth some Pakistanis had kept abroad, Mr Babar claimed that those agreements were signed by former finance minister Ishaq Dar in 2016 and not by the PTI government.

“Mr Khan is falsely claiming the credit and maligning his opponents. Falsehood has been exposed and the self-respect demands an apology,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb alleged that the prime minister was trying to get the credit of agreements signed by the previous PML-N government.

She claimed that some projects which were actually launched by the PML-N government were now being inaugurated by the PTI government.

“The PTI government is also trying to steal some MoUs (memorandums of understand) which were signed by the previous government,” she added.

“We do not expect that the proven liar-in-chief and certified Sadiq and Ameen prime minister will apologise for lying to the nation about the MoUs, but he should at least be ashamed of his shallow act,” Ms Aurangzeb said sarcastically. Despite making many attempts for taking his response on the PPP and PML-N leaders’ claim, Barrister Akbar could not be contacted.

While speaking on the matter, PTI’s member of the National Assembly Farrukh Habib told Dawn that Barrister Akbar was making efforts for the recovery of what he called the nation’s stolen money.

However, he said, the special assistant was the right person to comment on the PPP, PML-N leaders’ claim.

“Sometimes such information is not disclosed because otherwise desired results cannot be achieved,” he said.

When contacted by Dawn, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that only Mr Akbar could speak on the matter.

Ishaq Dar

Meanwhile, former finance minister Ishaq Dar claimed he had signed the agreement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2016 in Paris due to which it had become possible to get information about accounts of Pakistanis in 26 countries.

Talking to Geo TV on Monday, he said: “Because of the agreement it has become possible that the government of Pakistan can get information about accounts of Pakistanis since September 2018. I signed the agreement but never took credit of it. Information about the agreement is available on the OECD website and anyone can confirm it from the website,” he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Dar said allegations levelled by Mr Akbar were baseless. He said he did not own any property in any country other than Pakistan.

“The PTI government has been misleading people by telling lies. Ministers make tall claims and later say it was just a slip of tongue. I don’t have property anywhere in the world. If government has any information about my property it should make it public,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018