Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has called for the resignation from the government following the verdict of the Supreme Court stopping the sale of the Steel Mills of Pakistan at a throwaway price.
In a statement on Monday, the Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson said that the Supreme Court verdict exposed the government's failure, manipulation, corruption and abuse of power.
The Supreme Court in its landmark verdict said that the deal was "vitiated by legal violations by state functionaries, including acts of omissions and commissions and the transaction caused the government a loss of Rs18 billion".
The former prime minister said that for this reason, ethically the entire government must resign and announce a date of fresh and fair elections to be held under 'national government' with the help of an independent Election Commission.
She said that the PPP and other parties welcome the Supreme Court's judgement and support the verdict. She hoped that the Supreme Court would continue to be pro active on the issue of corruption, which was undermining the economy particularly through the privatisation at throwaway prices.
Technically, the superior court of the country has exposed the real face behind the mask of Musharraf's so-called government, and the verdict itself must be considered as a 'No confidence' on the government's ability to perform and safeguard the assets and the future of Pakistan.
PPP and other parties were agreeing that the verdict itself was a slap on the face of the government and that the verdict itself is a formal embarrassment to the government, the statement added. Under the NAB laws all government ministers and officials involved should be arrested and prosecuted, she said.
She said that no evidence of this kind existed in any other case being tried by NAB whose officials were abusing their office by failing to take action following the verdict.
Benazir said that the people of Pakistan had no trust and confidence left on Musharraf dictatorship and that exemplary punishment be awarded to all those who wanted to eat up a strategic profit-earning unit. She said that the Supreme Court should put a hold on entire privatisation process till the new government comes into power after the next general elections.
The former prime minister called for a financial forensic expert to be appointed to investigate the crash of Karachi Stock Exchange where reports suggest that the government and its officials were directly involved in irregularities, kickbacks, profit making and conspiracies. Just because of this, thousands of small investors have lost their life long savings and the KSE lost almost $14 billion.
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