LAHORE  -   Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has said that government is committed to accountability and backing out of this process will amount to betrayal to the voters.

The government would not flinch back from accountability and would nab every corrupt for which it had got mandate from the masses, the federal minister said while addressing a media function here yesterday.

The minister said it was wrong to construe accountability as vindictiveness of Prime Minster Imran Khan against the politicians. He said country must be cleared from this mess to go forward. Fawad said government was streamlining the institutions and a visible economic change would be visible in next six months. Under the leadership of Imran, the government will soon bring in a comprehensive reforms package.

The minister also laid stress on the need for ending suffocation in society and added, March 23 was the national day in the country but on the same day, Sikh freedom fighter Baghat Singh was also put to the gallows. “No harm if Baghat Singh is also remembered on that day,” he added.

Mentioning the US attack on Afghanistan after 9/11, Fawad said the US did not take permission from Pakistan before carrying out that adventurism. However, Pakistan had to face consequences after the attack.

The minister said a country was like a body, whose organs were interlinked with each other, but on coming to power, the PTI found every department and organs of the country ‘hollow’ and plagued with assorted mess. Fawad said the government was venturing to clear that mess in the national interest and it was quite wrong to dub that mess a personal clash of the prime minister with Asif Ali Zardari or any other politician. He said none of the cases against them had been framed by the PTI government but these were instituted long before the PTI came into power. He posed why the PPP and the PML-N did not take action on these cases during their respective rule. It was due to the reason that both had made underhand dealing to protect each other in these cases, he said, adding, the PTI government was now clearing up that mess which they had created.

Fawad said the PPP and the PML-N recruited their favourites and blue eyed in public departments so that these departments could act like partners in their shady business. These political appointments made by the PML-N and the PPP rulers destroyed the institutions and as a result of that country suffered badly. He said no country could improve unless its departments were efficient enough and was working properly under the law. When Imran became the prime minister it dawned upon him that every department was plagued with corruption and situation was worse than what he had perceived and mentioned during his public meeting before the elections.

The minister said the government rose to the occasion and took the foremost important matter of foreign payment on priority for which it reached out for assistance to friendly states. “Now the situation of balance of payments is OK,” he said adding, now steps were being taken to improve the industrial sector of the country which was vital for development. Prime Minister Khan extinguished the fire ignited by the former governments in every department, he was of the view.

He said there were no personal vendetta is politics. The minister said that cases against PML-N and PPP top leaders were not instituted by the PTI and these cases had been probed by the team of investigators.

He said leaders of both parties pursued similar mode of corruption and set up fake companies to send their money abroad. “Now when the law is taking is course and nabbing them, they are dubbing it victimisation,” he said, expressing strong commitment with accountability and showing no laxity in this regard. He said, “A parliamentarian on being caught for corruption, gets himself shifted to the assembly. He said little time was spared for discussing problems on that forum as the same people came there to present only their personal viewpoint. However, he said, this acrimonious situation will persist for some time, and there will be no let down in process of accountability.

Fawad said the country will reach the destination of progress and development under the leadership of Imran Khan. He said in next six months many steps will be taken for economic progress and there will be a visible change in Pakistan. The minister said at present, “Our imports are decreasing and remittances are increasing which is a good sign.”

APP adds: Later in a tweet, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain asked the opposition parties to now form an “alliance for restoration of corruption”. The minister said “It does not make any difference if they form alliance now or later, they will end up in jails.”

The corrupt politicians, he added, had strange wishes. They had looted and plundered national wealth for building personal properties but expected that the masses would start agitation to protect their ill-gotten money.