ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abassi on Thursday stressed at devising a joint strategy to curb corruption instead of politicising it.
“Political parties these days are exploiting the corruption issue for mud-slinging and maligning each other but have failed to evolve a consensus,” he said in a private news channel programme. “What we need is to agree upon a mechanism to control this menace for a better future of the coming generations,” he added.
He said a person can earn money through corruption but he cannot hide it from the authorities functioning in the country so all the political parties should sit together for the elimination of this menace from the society for which the best forum to resolve and discuss the matter is Parliament.
He replied to a question by saying that the opposition parties were using the Panama issue for their own interests but the fact is that accountability should be carried out across the board to penalise all those involved in corruption. “Targeting an individual in this pretext cannot be a solution unless all the corrupt are brought to justice,” he said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif never opposed the accountability of the corrupt, he said, but any specific proceedings would do no good to the effort for cleansing society of this menace.
After deployment of Rangers and launching the Karachi operation, law and order situation had improved in the mega city as compared to past, he maintained. Khaqan said that the federal government understands that Rangers are needed in Sindh to maintain law and order as they have delivered well in the recent months. “But if the Sindh government no more desires them to be in Karachi, it may approach the federal government,” he said.
