NAB chief figures exceed daily income of country: PM

KASUR: Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Sunday said the amount that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman has cited as daily corruption was not even the total income of the country in a day.

Addressing a public gathering after inaugurating various development projects here, the prime minister said the opposition was amused at the inflated corruption figures presented by the NAB chief but rejected the NAB figures as soon as it turned out that 65 percent of the alleged corruption was rampant in Punjab.

He urged opposition parties to end the politics of confrontation and start a new morning in politics for a better Pakistan and the welfare of the masses. Mentioning the separation of East Pakistan, the prime minister said: “December 16 is a constant reminder that there is no room for any future blunders in politics.”

The prime minister said it was time to hold each other’s hands and move forward as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had done in the light of the reconciliation policy as envisaged by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto over the past five years.

Stressing the need to protect democracy and democratic institutions, Ashraf said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and PPP workers had rendered immortal sacrifices for strengthening democracy in the country, adding that it was the PPP leadership and workers who had opposed dictators like General Ayub Khan, Ziaul Haq and Gen (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf.

“History never lies. It will not forget the sacrifices of the PPP which it had rendered for the cause of democracy and challenged dictatorship,” the premier added. He said democracy today owes its existence to the eternal sacrifices of the PPP as a result of its crusades against dictatorship, stressing that all political parties enjoyed political power due to the PPP.

The premier said the PPP gave a voice to the masses and it was the struggle of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto which won the right of vote for all and sundry, adding that, before Bhutto, only 80,000 notables had the right to vote in a population of about 100 million.
“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won the right to vote for a the common man as well as equality and gave them a lesson of self esteem,” he said, adding that “Bhutto gave Pakistan its right.”

Regarding December 16, Raja said the people who played politics in the name of religion, sect or a province had been causing harm to the country, adding that the PPP’s politics were for Pakistan.

He said the PPP was a party of the masses and its joy and grief were associated with workers and the masses. He said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto taught workers how to live and die with dignity for the glory of democracy and the welfare of the masses.

The prime minister said President Asif Ali Zardari was thrown into a dungeon by the opponents to break his spirit but he stood firm. About the PPP’s detractors, Raja said propaganda by the opposition was something not new to the PPP. He said our opponents should go through the verdict in the Asghar Khan case as the PPP did not need to read it, adding that Benazir Bhutto had told them about it during her lifetime.

He said the PPP caravan would move on despite all the propaganda, adding that the PPP did not believe in the politics for power, rather it was a party which believed in service from generation to generation and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will join the tradition when he will address party workers on December 27 at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in the footsteps of his family.

“The PPP does not believe in hatred. It is all about love in politics and the graves in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh also send this message of love and for consolidating Pakistan,” he added.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf claimed that the development works introduced by the PPP-led government during the past five years were unmatched since 1947.

Regarding claims by the opposition to close the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), the prime minister said the BISP had provided financial assistance to 7 million destitute women and its transparency had been confirmed by the World Bank (WB), adding that such a decision was tantamount to snatching an honourable source of living from people and the PPP would not let anybody do this.

The premier said that the PPP would again return to power in the 2013 elections through the popular vote. He announced various development projects in Kasur district. He also gave his tacit approval to open the Ganda Singh border with India on public demand, adding that the issue will be taken up with the Indian government in the next Pak-India dialogue.

Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz Ahmed, federal ministers Qamar Zaman Kaira, Syed Khurshid Shah, Samina Khalid Ghurki, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Syed Sumsam Ali Shah Bokhari and others were present on the occasion.