 Bureau report

LAHORE: Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, on Sunday said that the accounts of all political parties must be presented before public. He mentioned this while referring to the foreign funding case. While addressing a press conference along with Minster of Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib, he said that the previous government did not solve Gwadar’s problems. The work on foreign funding case is still not being done the way it should have been carried out.

The accounts of all parties must be presented before public. He went on to add that PM will bring a big package to solve problems of people in Balochistan. The government has an idea of problems being faced by people of Gwader. The issues including those of electricity, gas and water will be catered by Balochistan government soon. “Funding details of political parties including Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) should be made public,” he demanded. Fawad Chaudhry also lamented no progress made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in foreign funding cases.

He also claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif donated Rs100 million to PML-N in 2012 which party returned later. “Nawaz Sharif donated Rs100 million to PML-N in 2013 and then PML-N returned Rs45 million back to him,” he claimed, adding that they [PML-N] wanted to turn their black money into white. The PTI leader further urged the ECP to start the scrutiny process from PML-N and PPP and also include other parties including JUI-F and TLP. Speaking on electronic voting machines, Fawad Chaudhry reiterated that upcoming local bodies elections should be held through EVMs.

He said that government can provide machines to ECP in two months. “There will be no problem in conducting local body elections via EVMs at provincial level,” he said. The minister also slammed Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for using foul language during Sindh Assembly session. Moreover, he said that the government wants to make the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) a strong establishment. Many extremist organizations are not registered in ECP.

He said that the record of not a single donor of PML-N is registered in ECP. Similarly the funding record of PPP between 2009 to 2012 is empty. The sources of the funding are still unknown while in KPK division, no accountability of PML-N was ever carried out