PTI chief Imran Khan on Thursday offered the government to probe his assets including his house at Bani Gala and Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital's endowment fund that the government claims to have been embezzled. Speaking in the National Assembly, he said: "If there is no wrongdoing in assets of the Sharif family, let them be investigated," he demanded.
He said the crisis could be turned into an opportunity by strengthening the country's tax system, declaring assets and making the National Accountability Bureau as an independent institution. Pressing the Panama leaks issue, he said the government should answer the allegations instead of accusing the opposition in response. "A prime minister leads by example ... in a democracy, a prime minister has a moral authority (to run the country) as he can't suppress voice of the people through police," he said. Pakistan's debt has increased from Rs 5 trillion in 2005 to Rs 21 trillion now, he said, adding the government should focus on improving the tax collection system.
"There is no money to run the country," he said, "according to NAB, there is a daily corruption of 12 billion rupees in the country.'Khan said the PML-N government had promised to bring back the looted money as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that Pakistanis have stashed $200 billion in Switzerland.
Responding to Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's allegations about the Shaukat Khanum, he said if the endowment fund of the hospital has been misused; the government should have probed it. "It is the only hospital in the world that spends 350 million rupees annually on treatment of the poor patients," he said, adding that everybody could access and probe funds of the hospital.
Pointing towards the treasury benches, he said, "think about your country rather than your politics .... why do you want to abolish a charitable hospital." Khan said that 40 percent of the Shaukat Khanum funds come from overseas Pakistanis; therefore some money is kept abroad to buy machinery for the hospital.
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