Opposition blackmailing govt on FATF bills: PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that opposition parties are “blackmailing” his government over FATF bills  despite being aware of the importance of the desired legislation and repeated his resolve not to give the opposition leaders any sort of “relief” in corruption cases.

In an exclusive interview with ARY News’ anchor Arshad Sharif, the PM said that his government had inherited the FATF grey-list status and is trying hard to comply with the international body’s guidelines to bring Pakistan out of the list but “self-serving” opposition party leaders are trying to blackmail his government against supporting the bills “just to save their ill-gotten wealth”.

“They have this one-point agenda, if I grant them an NRO (a euphemism for relief in corruption cases), all will be well,” said the PM.

PM Imran Khan made it clear that granting NRO will be against his principled stance against corruption and would mean compromising on his party’s political ideology and is simply out of question.

He lamented that the self-serving politicians of the opposition parties know how India is lobbying to get Pakistan black-listed at FATF and what effects blacklisting will have on the country’s economy but are still using this national interest legislation as a blackmailing tool.

Karachi should be governed like a country

When asked about the situation in Karachi, the premier was of the opinion that Karachi is a megacity and should be governed like a country.

“Karachi is a megacity and should be governed like a country, on the same pattern as New York and Paris,” said the PM.

He maintained that the Sindh government has all the powers after 18th amendment but their job was to devolve them to local bodies and they have not done so, resulting in a mess in Karachi.

The PM said that the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab will set an example by appointing a powerful mayor in Lahore and Peshawar.