Pakistan Muslim League-N has said that the move of the government to exempt politicians from accountability process under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is against the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by the leaders of two major political parties.
PML-N central information secretary Ahsan Iqbal said that politicians should also be accountable for their misdoings and their exemption from accountability is against the law and the commitment between Nawaz Sharif and Benazir while signing the landmark document -CoD. He also rejected the blame of the government that the anti-government forces are behind any rampage and ransack, rather, he said, it is due to the failure of the government to deliver to the masses.
Ahsan condemned the government move to clear out the politicians from the circle of accountability under NAB, saying that it would further encourage corrupt politicians to loot the money of tax-payers. He said that the move is against the essence of CoD as it was decided in the agreement that a national level institute for transparent accountability would be established and all the politicians, regardless of their political affiliation, would be held accountable. He further added that the procedure for the fresh appointment of judiciary is also written in the CoD, but the PPP government also ignores it.
The PML-N leader opined that there is complete absence of governance and government should take immediate measures to restore its writ. Instead of materialising slogan of "roti, kapra and makan", people are deprived of electricity, gas and petrol. He pointed out that the government did nothing for addressing the power crisis during last ten months, which is the clear indication of its failure. "The first reason of power crisis is not installing even a single power unit by the dictatorship for the last eight years. The second reason is not settling the payment issue between power generating companies and oil companies", he maintained.
Ahsan said that 2500 MW power is short out of total 4000 MW power shortage because of non-payment for purchasing of furnace oil to the power generating companies.
If the government provides furnace oil to the power generating companies, then two-thirds of power shortage could be overcome within 48 hours. But, he said, government only opts to level allegations against opposition to hide its own failure to divert the masses attention.
Due to the government policies, a large number of industrial units have been closed down, people rendered jobless and wheel of industries stopped, he maintained.
Ahsan alleged that instead of addressing issues related to common man, the government has completely focused its attention only on strengthening its grip over power gaining and protecting what he termed 'PCO judiciary'. Due to this, he said, the real issues of people are aggravating day by day, suggesting that government should come to its real agenda for which the people voted it to power on February 18 last.