Islamabad: Praising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment through his foreign trips, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Imran Khan, criticised Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not emulating the former, and only using his overseas tours to expand his foreign business empire, or to settle awkward financial issues arising out of the Panama Papers leaks case.
Using Twitter, Khan made a comparison of both Prime Ministers’ and highlighted the abysmal status of FDI in Pakistan.
“In sharp contrast to our PM’s “holiday trips”, Indian PM Modi’s overseas trips have brought billions of dollars of investment into India. Seems our PM’s overseas tours may have been used to expand his foreign business empire & settle awkward financial issues in wake of Panama leaks,” Khan tweeted.
Pointing out that FDI into Pak plummeted to less than USD one billion in the last fiscal, he questioned, “So, what have PM’s overseas visits, costing taxpayers Rs 65 crores, achieved?”
“Falling FDI shows corruption scares investors away. Also, when PM’s children invest outside Pak, wrong signals go to foreign investors,” he said.
“When rulers’ families take their wealth outside instead of investing in Pak, it reflects a lack of commitment in country’s development,” he added.
The Election Commission had yesterday asked Sharif to reply within 20 days on petitions filed by opposition parties seeking his disqualification for hiding information about his alleged offshore wealth after the ‘Panama Papers’ leak.
He was even asked to reply by September 6 to the accusations that he had been hiding his offshore wealth.
The investigation published by an international coalition of more than 100 media outlets on April 3, drawn from the internal database of Panamaian law firm Mossack Fonseca exposed how powerful people around the world use banks, law firms and offshore shell companies to hide their assets.
The documents revealed that his two sons and a daughter owned properties in the UK that were not shown on his family’s wealth statement. (ANI)