Asif flays Imran for 'diverting SKMH funds to offshore companies'

ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday flayed Imran Khan for allegedly transferring the funds collected for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital (SKMH) to overseas shell firms.

He slammed PTI chairman saying that even a thief would spare a hospital, that too, named after his late mother.

"Even a thief would spare a hospital and, that too, on his mother's name," Khawaja Asif wrote on Twitter.

He alleged Imran Khan of diverting SKMH funds to offshore companies owned by a member of SKMH board of directors.

Yet, Khan is an honourable man, the minister made a sarcastic remark.

Asif questioned as to who was a shameless soul: one who asks to account for funds given to SKMH or the person who diverts this money to an overseas shell firm.

Earlier on Thursday, PML-N led government held a hard-hitting press conference in Islamabad, in an obvious rebuttal to the opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and its chief Imran Khan.

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PMLN) stalwart and legislator Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said that as the Panama case was now under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, there remains no need to take coercive measures to block the capital city.

"There are the rights of Islamabad residents, who must be respected by not taking any unconstitutional measures," he said.

Taking the charge after Chaudhry, PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz notched up his pitch against the PTI chief by accusing him of instigating terrorism in the name of politics.

"We have received information that the PTI is weaponising its party workers through seminaries that the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has recently announced to fund on taxpayers' money,” he said.

The statements by the PML-N leadership come as November 2 nears, for which the PTI has given a call for a massive protest in Islamabad, in a final showdown aimed at forcing PM Nawaz to step down and present himself for accountability in the wake of Panama Papers disclosures.