Jun.28, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan says former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif’s wristwatch is worth Rs90 million and is 10 times more than the value of his property he showed in his tax returns.
He called for scrapping of the over a billion rupees project in the name of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and advised the Bhutto family to better build her monument from their own pocket.
In a chat with The News here, the PTI chairman, who keeps a sharp eye on the lifestyle and the pro-poor rhetoric of the ruling elite, said the major problem Pakistan today faced was of tax evasion by the mighty and powerful, who posed to be the well-wishers of Pakistan and its poor and the needy.
“You just set aside the massive bungalows he lives in and the fleet of vehicles he affords: just take the example of his wristwatch. Nawaz, Asif Ali Zardari and many others have their property and assets transferred abroad in a shady manner,” he charged.
He counted the offences of the ruling elite and said they never declared their wealth, they quietly shifted it abroad, they indulged in money laundering and evaded the wealth tax, as they never adopted legal means to take away their assets abroad. This also showed they had no faith in the country’s economy, he added.
In this connection, he noted the classic example of money laundering of the Hudaibiya Paper Mills that was used as a cover for money laundering. He said ex-premier Nawaz Sharif even had framed laws to evade taxes. “By adopting illegal means such as ‘hawala’, they indirectly put pressure on Pakistani rupee and as a result it keeps on eroding its value,” the cricketer-turned-politician, maintained.
All this was happening in a country which the PTI chairman pointed out, had to take loans to pay back loans, having the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio across the globe that was leading it to bankruptcy. Against the backdrop of this grim scenario, Imran pointed out that Pakistan was among the five countries having the lowest spending on social sectors, particularly education and health.