Panama Leaks: NAB's silence on trial of 436 persons creates doubts about its impartiality: Siraj

Emir Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Sirajul Haq has said that silence of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on trial of 436 persons named in Panama Leaks has been creating doubts about its impartiality. While talking to media persons here on Wednesday, he also slammed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government's decisions of increasing prices of essential kitchen items, daily use items and necessities of life, and requesting International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out Pakistan of financial crisis.
Siraj said that on November 17, 2017, his party had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the other 436 persons, besides former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, named in the Panama Leaks and the court had sought a report from the federal government and the NAB in this regard. He said it had been over a year but there was complete silence both by the NAB and the Supreme Court in that regard. He said the nation wanted across the board accountability of the corrupt and the plunderers.
He said about 150 cases of mega corruption had been pending with the NAB, but no progress was being made in that regard. He said the NAB had complete record of the people involved in corruption and misappropriation of the public money as well as transferring their wealth abroad, but there had been no progress in those cases. Because of that, most of people were of the view that a fair and across the board accountability was not being done, he said, adding it was a question mark on the NAB's functioning.
The JI Emir said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had come to power because of its promises regarding a change, overcoming price hike and unemployment as well as putting the country on the path of development and prosperity. However, he said the performance of the government during the last two months had been disappointing. On the other hand, the government has raised prices of utilities which exacerbated worries of a layman. He said if the people didn't get any relief soon, they would not remain silent for longtime, adding that result of by-election was an indicator of public mood.
The JI Emir said that every new government had been saying that the public exchequer was empty due to the wrong policies of the outgoing rulers. He said the party in power could improve the situation by proper handling of the national affairs. Opposing the government's decision to seek IMF help, Sirajul said if the PTI leadership had stuck to its promise of making the country a Medina like state and opted to abolish the interest-based economy and switched over to the system of Zakat and Usher, all economic problems of the country would have been resolved.