Khaqan asks public to raise questions about wealth status of elected representatives

HYDERABAD: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday advised the public to raise questions about the wealth status of their elected representatives.

“You [people] should question your assembly members when they again visit you for votes aboard land cruisers with 12 armed bodyguards that how they can afford so many luxury vehicles, fuel and guards,” he said while addressing a seminar in Latifabad.

Khaqan Abbasi, who is also a senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader, said it was not difficult for the public to check the wealth status of their representatives because their tax record was available online.

“Have you ever asked them how they pay for the vehicles, their fuel and guards? No change is possible until they are asked such questions as they enjoy all such perks and privileges from public taxes,” he underlined.

He said Pakistan fortunately had the 1973 Constitution as many countries lacked such an elaborate constitution. However, academic research should be carried as to how much the constitution was beneficial for the ordinary people and the country’s system of governance, he added.

Khaqan Abbasi said if new provinces were carved out of Sindh, Balochistan and KP, then Punjab could also be divided into more federating units. Punjab’s population was over 120 million, which was even more than that of 80 percent countries and it was administratively difficult to govern such large provinces, he added.

“While sitting in Karachi, you can’t solve the problems of Hyderabad,” he said, adding in case consensus could not be reached on the creation of new provinces, at least a devolution of authority within the provinces should take place.

He reiterated that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and its laws had made the governance difficult because the bureaucracy was reluctant to work fearing NAB action.

Former finance minister Miftah Ismail underlined that dynastic trends existed not only in the political families, but the same were evident among Ulema.

He said the elite class, which was only one percent of the population, was controlling the country. The linguistic issues were unnecessarily hyped up as the real issue was the English speaking elite, who got all the opportunities, eh added.

The leaders of nationalist parties and representatives of the civil society organizations also expressed their views.