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Published 11 Sep, 2002 12:00am

Chaudhrys had loans written off, says Imran

ISLAMABAD Sept 10: The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) on Tuesday made public documents disclosing that two Chaudhrys of Gujrat had their loans worth Rs241.39 million written off by different financial institutions.

Speaking at a news conference, PTI Chairman Imran Khan demanded of the chief election commissioner to take a suo moto action and disqualify the Chaudhrys from contesting the October general election as, in his views, the documentary evidence proved that they had violated the “declaration of oath” as spelled out in the nomination papers.

“If the chief election commissioner has to restore his credibility as an impartial office head, then he must move fast towards reaching at a conclusion that the Chaudhrys were grossly involved in practices, which disqualify them from contesting elections,” he said, adding that the oath stated that any candidate or their immediate family members would stand disqualified from contesting the polls if they were a defaulter or had loans up to Rs2 million or more written off against them.

According to the document, released to the press, the annual report of Muslim Commercial Bank for the year 2000 lists Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi as the directors of the Punjab Sugar Mills, Vehari, Multan. They had their loans worth Rs22.792 million written off, while an amount of Rs218.598 million was written off by the “Bankers Equity” against the loan given to the Punjab Sugar Mills in November 1996.

The PTI chief urged the government to clear its position with regard to the allegations of pre-poll rigging, including backing officially-supported candidates by district Nazimeen.

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