Inflation increases by 24 percent: Rs 2 billion corruption being done daily, claims Abbasi

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday claimed that Rs 2 billion corruption is being done daily while inflation has gone up by 24 percent in the country.

Talking to media along with another jailed PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal outside Parliament House, he said that a special committee of National Assembly should be constituted to probe into skyrocketing inflation. He said that the lives of poor people are in miserable condition due to price hike, adding people behind the record inflation country's history should be identified and punished.

"For this purpose [inflation], the opposition has demanded the government to form a special committee to find out the reasons behind price-hike in the country," he added. The incarcerated PML-N leader asked the journalists to ask on-camera questions, and reiterated that Rs 2 billion daily corruption is being done in the country. The flour and sugar crises are due to corruption, he added.

Abbasi said that details of 20-year-old assets have been given to National Accountability Bureau (NAB), adding we are present at every forum for accountability. He said that despite passage of one-and-a-half-year, nothing has been proved against him in the courts. He said that there were 50 ministers and special assistants in his cabinet but no one was accused of corruption.

Answering a question, he questioned why NAB is not investigating Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. He said that he has applied for bail in the court after seven months. Ahsan Iqbal said that since PTI has come into power, every Pakistani is indebted by Rs 1600,00, adding there was Rs 120000 debt on every Pakistani in 72 years but it has increased by Rs 40,000 within a short span of a year during this government.

He said that PTI government could not complete the projects which were already underway. He said that the country is near bankruptcy due to flawed policies economic policies of the rulers. Terming Prime Minister Imran Khan a "biggest mafia" himself, he said that Khan has been imposed under foreign funding to destroy Pakistan's economy. He also claimed that the sponsors' agenda is to weaken the economy which may lead "compromise on nuclear power".