PESHAWAR:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan claimed on Tuesday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government had offered him Rs10 billion to stay silent and back down in the Panama Papers case.
Addressing a gathering of party leaders and workers after visiting the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Peshawar, Khan said if Sharif’s government had so much money at its disposal to make such an offer to a single person, one could only imagine how much it could have offered to the authorities investigating the Panama Papers case.
“All the authorities probing into the Panamagate case are under the government’s control. How can a proper investigation against the prime minister and his family and accountability be expected?”
Imran challenges PM to ‘open debate’ on Panamagate
Khan said the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision had increased awareness among the masses and exposed Sharif’s true face to his supporters.
“All fake statements have now come out in the open and he [Nawaz Sharif] is now stuck because of the fake evidence his team had presented before the SC,” he added.
The PTI chief said Sharif had no further evidence to prove he was clean of corruption. He added that the PTI would now build pressure on the investigating authorities to stop them from protecting the prime minister and his family.
“We will not give up until the prime minister’s resignation.”
Khan also urged people to participate in his party’s protest rally being held in Islamabad on Friday to demand Sharif’s resignation.
Earlier in the day, the PTI chief inaugurated the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Under-23 Games 2017 at the Hayatabad Sports Complex in Peshawar.
Sports, recreation facilities in K-P
Addressing the gathering at the event, Khan urged youngsters, especially students, to hard work to succeed in life instead of looking for shortcuts.
“If I had not worked hard while playing cricket, I wouldn’t have been able to build the Shaukat Khanum Hospital and if I had not received my training in cricket I wouldn’t have formed the PTI. I wouldn’t have been here today,” he said.
The PTI chief said sports taught people to compete and regretted that there were very few playgrounds in the country as governments never gave importance to sports.
He said 100 playgrounds were being constructed across K-P and 50 had already been built.
On hearing chants of “Go Nawaz Go” at the gathering, Khan said the slogan seemed to have become the “second national anthem” for the country and would be “played” at Friday’s protest rally.
