(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the opposition tried to blackmail the government in Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-related legislation in exchange of relaxation of corruption cases against them.
He reiterated government's firm resolve to continue the country's ongoing accountability process.
In an interview with a private TV channel, the prime minister said that opposition tried to blackmail government in the pretext of FATF laws.
Khan said that opposition parties' objective is just to protect looted money, claiming that past governments destroyed the national institutions, leaving large public sector organisations under heavy debt.
The prime minister also accused former premier Nawaz Sharif of targeting the Pakistan military for his own interests.
Khan defended the army, which he said has always protected our motherland.
He said that the opposition leaders are trying to discredit the army, which would be tantamount to breaking up the state.
The prime minister said that incumbent government has put Pakistan on right track, and that the people will soon witness change in the country.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohamed Khan has said that the government is ready to initiate talks with the opposition parties, but they should first return the looted national wealth.
Talking to a private news channel, he said both the leaderships of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) were involved in massive corruption during their time leading the country.
Minister Khan said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other investigating institutions are carrying out effective accountability process against corruption.
Replying to a question, he said that if the opposition wanted electoral reforms, then the politicians should do so in parliament, which is the best forum to address such issues.
The NAB has meanwhile decided to file seven more corruption references involving former ministers and government officials in different accountability courts.
The decision to this effect was taken in the NAB's Executive Board Meeting (EBM) presided over by the NAB chairman former Justice Javed Iqbal.
The meeting approved the filing of seven corruption references, launching of six investigations, and three corruption inquiries, a NAB official said.
He said that the meeting has approved the closing of investigations against Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the Punjab Assembly speaker and a former Punjab minister, and others due to lack of evidence.
The official said that the meeting decided to file reference against former Balochistan health minister Rahmat Ali and others.
The accused persons are alleged to have misused their authority and accumulated assets beyond known sources of income, and illegally-awarded contracts as well as made illegal appointments.
The official said that the EBM approved another reference against Meer Mohamed Sadiqu, another former Balochistan minister .
The accused had allegedly misused his authority and illegally allotted five acres of land in his name, costing losses of Rs280.2mn to the national exchequer.
During the EBM meeting, the official said that the anti-graft body also approved to file a reference against Maqbool Ahmed, the former Balochistan secretary of monitoring and development.
The accused allegedly misused his authority to award a contract to a contractor by reducing the reserve cost to Rs21mn from Rs32.15mn, which caused losses of Rs11mn to the national exchequer.
Similarly, the bureau has also decided to file corruption reference against former FC Bannu district officers Nisarullah Khan and Abdul Nawaz Khan, and others.
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