ISLAMABAD: Federal Information minister, Fawad Hussain Chaudhary, and Minister for Communication ,Murad Saeed, on Sunday said Pakistan People Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz ( PMLN) plundered public money by constructing road projects at much higher cost during their respective rules. Murad Saeed gave a detailed comparasion of per km cost of construction of roads in PPP, PMLN and PTI rules at a press conference held here. He was accompanied by Fawad Hussain Chaudhary.
Murad Saeed gave reference of Lahore-Islamabad motorway, Sialkot-Lahore motorway and Sukhar- Multan motorway, Sialkot Kharian motorway that suggested that per km cost of construction of roads in PMLN rule was on average Rs 200 million plus higher than the cost incurring on the road projects with even better facilities in Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government.
Murad Saeed claimed PMLN and PPP top leadership got huge kickbacks in road construction and laundered that ill-gotton money to purchase properties in United Kingdom (UK) and other countries.
“I want to make the nation realise that each km of road constructed by PMLN cost them Rs 80 million to Rs 200 m extra per km and that extra cost was basically kickback that Sharifs got from the contractors to become filthy rich”, Murad alleged.
According to Murad Saeed, both PPP and PMLN got huge loans to construct roads that led Pakistan to debt trap.
The minister said “PMLN top leadership received kickback of Rs 1 trillion plus in four development projects I just mentioned and it was a tip of the iceburg of corruption done by Sharifs in only last one tenure (2013-18).
He said ” Imran Khan was against constructing roads with loans as they ultimately bring financial problems for the country”.
Murad Saeed noted PTI government was making every possible effort to ensure transparency at every level of development projects to save every penny of public funds.
He said all detail of development projects undertaken by PTI rule was available on the official website of the National Highway.
Fawad Chaudhary said Nawaz Sharif used the federal cabinet to make laws to protect corruption in different departments.
He said Sharifs over-invoiced cost of the projects and later made laws to protect their higher cost”. He said PTI was struggling to get reopened Hudaibia reference to expose real level of Sharifs’ corruption.