Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Friday took shots at Prime Minister Imran Khan over the recent findings of the Transparency International’s (TI) latest report, which showed Pakistan slipped four places in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
“Transparency International has testified that Pakistan has been mired in corruption for the last two years,” the PML-N VP said on Twitter.
“He was right when he said, ‘If the Prime Minister is corrupt, then corruption is everywhere’,” she added, snidely referring to “the servant” as “honest”.
Maryam is not the only opposition leader to take shots at the ruling party after the release of the reports.
A day earlier, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman had said that Prime Minister Imran’s claims to end corruption are based on lies. She had said that corruption is on the rise during this government’s tenure and that Pakistan losing a few places on the global corruption index is a question mark on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s performance.
Pakistan has dropped down seven places on the list since this government came to power, she had stressed, adding that the world is now watching the story of the government’s wrath of corruption.
“The focus is on NAB and the government’s political opponents, not corruption,” Rehman had said.
Similarly, PPP MNA Shazia Atta Marri had said that in the past, PM Imran used to wave transparency reports and ask governments to go home.
Until 2018, PM Imran never got tired of wailing over the Transparency International reports, she had said, adding that the premier had lost the moral legitimacy to stay in power after today’s report.
“How many references did the NAB make on the corruption of the federal government that has been going on for the last two-and-a-half years?” she had asked.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) of Pakistan on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill had made an attempt to defend the government after Pakistan’s ranking was revealed on the global corruption list.
He had stated that TI has again exposed Pakistan’s leaders and their corruption. The prime minister’s aide had said if one were to take the data sources out, one would find outdated data has been used to calculate Pakistan’s rating.
He had given an example of the World Bank data cited in by TI which has been published in 2017. He had said this means the data for a 2017 publication must have been collected before 2017. The SAPM had shown another data source from 2018.
SAPM Gill had stated this corruption perception report, thus, is from the last tenure of the PML-N government.
