PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said that the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was inevitable for a permanent solution to FATA’s issues.
Flanked by KP Chief Minister and cabinet members, the PTI Chief said that the Centre, KP and FATA would have to sit together to decide the merger, adding that the change should be gradual so that the people of FATA can accept the change.
He said that there was no infrastructure in FATA – until the complete return of displaced persons and their rehabilitation, and infrastructure development the merger would not be fruitful.
Imran Khan recommended that the utilisation of funds in FATA should also be jointly decided by the Centre, KP and FATA. He suggested that development funds should be spent through the local government system.
Meanwhile, the PTI chief condemned the suicide attack on the vehicle of judges in Hayatabad Phase-IV and said that such a cowardly attack reflected their desperation since they were on the run.
Khan asserted the menace of terrorism would be curbed soon and the nefarious designs of anti-state elements would be foiled.
Meanwhile, talking to the media outside the Supreme Court following the Panamagate case hearing, Imran Khan believed that there were clear contradictions in the statements of the Sharif family and there was no money trail of their properties in foreign countries yet he believed Ishaq Dar’s affidavit was the real money trail of the Sharifs’ properties.
“The statement of Ishaq Dar is the actual money trail of the Sharifs, as national institutions are busy producing fake documents to rescue the ruling family.”
Imran Khan pointed to the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz in her TV interview claimed they had no foreign property, while on the other hand the PM’s son Hussain Nawaz and Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif confessed that properties, including Mayfair flats, were purchased in the 90s by the family.
Khan stated that after emergence of Panama leaks, the Sharif family’s properties came into the light and then ICIJ investigative journalist organisation and later the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) confirmed that Maryam Nawaz was the beneficiary owner of London flats, while the PM on the National Assembly floor admitted that he had all the necessary evidence regarding his foreign properties, yet not a single piece of evidence, which could prove that their foreign properties were legal, could be produced in the SC during the last nine months. “The Sharif family is trying to contest their case on fake documents.”
Talking about the Qatari letter, he said that a story regarding the settlement of Mian Sharif and the Qatari royal family had begun in the court and tactics were being applied to transfer responsibility to others but, “today in the SC, the counsel for Hussain Nawaz, Salman Akram Raja, said that he had no money trail”.
Imran said that Qatari letters and fake documents presented by the FBR showed their real and ‘cowardly’ face, and proved that the Sharifs could cross any limit to save themselves from accountability. For Imran Khan, whenever Nawaz Sharif was in power, no national institution could hold an unbiased investigation against him because he was responsible for appointing the officials of these institutions in the first place. The PTI Chief questioned how it was possible for such an appointed leader to hold an impartial and honest investigation against him.
In response to a question, he said that the Election Commission of Pakistan had all records of his properties that he had held during the last 20 years, but no judgement had been given so far on the disqualification reference case.
