Sharif family had laundered huge amounts in foreign currency through their off-shore companies: Moonis Elahi

Lahore (May 27, 2010) The sale of Phalia Sugar Mills was a transparent business transaction and no financial irregularity was committed as implied. After miserably failing to implicate the Chaudhry Family in Haris Steel scandal, our opponents are now desperately trying to drum up another set of false and baseless accusations. Such campaigns are meant to hide our opponents’ own follies and to divert public attention from their stupendous financial crimes. These views were expressed by Moonis Elahi, central leader of Pakistan Muslim League while responding to the accusations made in a section of the press concerning the sale of his family owned Phalia Sugar Mills to M/S Colony Group.

Moonis Elahi said that Colony Group was one of Pakistan’s leading business groups and its credit lines with various banks far exceeded the alleged amount mentioned in the news item and it was highly unfair to politicize a normal business deal to serve vested political interests. He said that Colony Group had not defaulted with the Bank of Punjab at any stage but on the contrary it was a known fact that the Sharif family was on the Bank of Punjab’s defaulters list and owed over 171 million rupees to the bank since long. Moonis Elahi further added that it was also common knowledge that the Sharifs were the country’s biggest bank defaulters and owed billions of rupees to various Pakistani banks, financial institutions and also to the FBR.

He said that it was also widely known that the Sharif family had laundered huge amounts in foreign currency through their off-shore companies and there was a signed confession of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif to this effect present in the records of London High Court. These and similar other facts regarding the financial crimes of the Sharifs had been time and again pointed out by Pakistan Muslim League in the last two and a half years to the utter chagrin of the Sharifs, said Moonis Elahi. He further said that the Sharifs’ financial corruption was clearly evident from Hamesh Khan’s written statement submitted to the US, State Department and also in his petition filed with the Supreme Court of Pakistan where he had stated that the incumbent Punjab Chief Minister, on his failure to illegally wrest $ 8 million from Hamesh Khan, the BOP Chief at the time, for the purchase of a sugar mill and in being unable to coerce Hamesh Khan into becoming an approver against the Chaudhry family ordered his persecution.

Moonis Elahi alleged the N League government of deliberately destroying the Bank of Punjab’s market credibility soon after coming into power and of engineering its financial collapse for vested political gains. How was it possible that the share value of BOP which stood at Rs 130 per share till the end of our government in 2007 came crashing down to less than Rs 10 with in the first two months of Shahbaz Sharif’s government in 2008? Moonis asked. He challenged his opponents to prove that his family had ever maintained an account with the Bank of Punjab or borrowed even a penny from it at any point while in power.

Purchase of 28 VIP cars for Chief Minister exposes N League’s bogus austerity claims: Moonis Elahi

Lahore ( May 12, 2010) Moonis Elahi, central leader of Pakistan Muslim League has said that at a time when the poor cannot even afford two square meals a day, Punjab’s N League government in stark contradiction to its bogus claims of austerity has decided to add 28 more VIP cars worth 31 crores to the Chief Minister’s fleet. The bullet proof cars bought by the previous regime were never auctioned contrary to announcements and are still in active personal service of Punjab’s ruling family. 28 new VIP cars are being acquired by further over-burdening the already depleted financial resources of Punjab.

Moonis Elahi expressed these views at a meeting with party workers in Lahore today. Lashing out at the decision of adding 28 more VIP cars to Punjab CM’s fleet, Moonis Elahi said that in the current extremely trying financial times where Punjab’s hospitals and schools had become incapable of performing their basic functions due to lack of funds and thousands of people were daily sliding down the poverty line due to inflation, unemployment and load shedding the decision of acquiring 28 new luxury vehicles has come as a shock.

Moonis Elahi flaying the decision said that the current rulers of Punjab were following in the footsteps of Muhammad Shah Rangeela a debauched Mughal King and their claims of adopting simplicity were nothing more than a farce. He said that the hidden face of N League now stood fully exposed to the people of Punjab and their announcements of bringing prices of essential commodities down to the level of 1999, auctioning of previous government’s bullet proof cars and converting 8 Club Road, Lahore into an IT university had proven to be a pack of lies.

Moonis Elahi alleged the N League government as solely responsible for Punjab’s existing sorry state of affairs and reiterated his party’s firm resolve to protect the interests of the poor.

Punjab is not a province of charity seekers: Moonis Elahi

Lahore (May 8, 2010) After the failure of the tandoor scam if CM Punjab thinks that his upcoming Langar hoax will save N League’s sinking boat he is sadly mistaken. Punjab is not a province of charity seekers and the proud people of Punjab demand their constitutional right to better life instead of being humiliated through N League’s sham roti, atta and langar schemes. If CM Punjab had an iota of genuine concern for the poor of the province he would have long ago dumped his huge army of useless advisors who are merely getting fatter day by day on public money. These were the views of Moonis Elahi, central leader of Pakistan Muslim League expressed during a meeting in Lahore today with office bearers of Pakistan Muslim League Labor Wing.
In the meeting Moonis Elahi blamed N League’s Punjab government for squandering massive public funds for cheap political gimmicks and huge personal gains at the expense of the innocent and proud Punjabis. He blamed N League for reducing Punjab once the bread basket of the country to a food deficient region and for insulting the pride of its people by forcing them to stand in long lines for flour, sugar and other necessary food items.

Moonis Elahi called CM Punjab’s latest announcement regarding the launch of Langar (public kitchen) scheme in Punjab as yet another hoax meant to deceive people and to extort public funds. If poor people can successfully run langars (public kitchens) at Data Sahib’s shrine in Lahore and at similar other holy places in Punjab with their scant resources and on their own then why can’t the N League leadership with its huge financial assets follow suit? Moonis Elahi asked while adding that the truth was that N League’s leadership had a history of taking money from the poor and not giving it back to them.

The langar scheme was going to be another fraud with the people and like in the earlier tandoor scam where 30 billion rupees of public money had disappeared the upcoming langar hoax was also bound to gobble further billions, he alleged. This time the people of Punjab will not be deceived and if any attempt is made to misappropriate public funds for political gimmickry they will confront the rulers, declared Moonis Elahi.