A Message to Youth on Independence Day: Moonis Elahi

PML will stand with the flood affected of Rajanpur, D G Khan, Layyah, Rojhan and other districts: Moonis Elahi

Lahore (July 23, 2010): Moonis Elahi, central leader of Pakistan Muslim League has directed the leaders and workers of Pakistan Muslim League and Tehrik e Quaid to undertake all out efforts for the relief of the victims of recent floods and torrential rains in Punjab. He has urged his party members to whole heartedly participate in the flood relief activities irrespective of political affiliations and go beyond the call of duty to help the unfortunate victims. Moonis Elahi gave these instructions to Tehrik e Quaid coordinator Nasir Mehmood Gill on telephone today.

Moonis Elahi

Moonis Elahi who is currently visiting the US in his message slammed the Punjab Government’s apathy to the problems of the flood affected and expressed his bitter anguish at the fact that the Punjab Government had not made any preparations for the natural disaster despite prior information provided by the MET department with the help of satellite images. He said that whether it was acts of terrorism or natural calamities the incumbent Punjab rulers had failed to avert these disasters or control their impact despite early warnings.

Moonis Elahi expressed his remorse and grief at the unfortunate loss of precious human lives and property due to floods in Rajanpur, D G Khan, Layyah, Rojhan and other affected districts and reiterated his party’s commitment with the flood victims in their time of need.

Suicides on the rise in Punjab due to rulers’ incompetence : Moonis Elahi

(Lahore, June 19, 2010) A pall of gloom and morbidity has enshrouded Punjab since the return of the Sharifs in 2008.The alarming rise of suicide incidents in Punjab is the direct result of the province’s economic ruin brought about by Sharif “mal-administration” in the last two and a half years. How can the poor and the jobless survive when the budgeted personal daily expenses of the self-proclaimed “Khadim –e- Aala” are well over Rs.7 lacs? Sasti-roti drama has created further hunger and deprivation in the society. These views were expressed by Moonis Elahi, central leader of Pakistan Muslim League, during a meeting with members of PML Human Rights Wing in Lahore today.

The meeting was summoned to discuss the implications of the rising number of suicides in Punjab and to explore ways for the eradication of the causes leading to this unfortunate development. Commenting on the issue, Moonis Elahi strongly criticized the rulers and held them solely responsible for the unfortunate trend. He said that Punjab was the hardest hit and the highest number of suicide incidents had been reported in Punjab in the last six months. Moonis Elahi blamed Shahbaz government for the rising pessimism in the masses forcing some of them to take their own lives.

He said that N League had made false promises with the people at election time and in the last two and half years they had given them nothing except poverty, unemployment, inflation, crimes and now suicides. The present system of governance in Punjab is based on the whims and caprices of one man which had also seriously weakened the relationship between the citizen and the state, Moonis observed.

He said that in Punjab under the coercive Sharif regime citizens’ rights were being usurped, nepotism and jobbery were the order of the day and provincial resources were being squandered on poorly planned and counter-productive schemes. Criticising the roti scheme, Moonis said that N League’s government instead of launching the much needed poverty reduction initiatives had so far only come up with poverty production schemes like the roti scheme. They have not paid a paisa of Zakat fund to the needy and it is evident that they want the proud people of Punjab to hold a begging bowl instead of hammer, chisel or pen, he alleged. He stated that these factors compounded with the self-proclaimed Khadim-e-Ala’s incapacity to understand the gravity of the situation had resulted in wide spread depression and dismay in the fast growing numbers of poor and jobless of the province.

He said that the present situation had made the poor and the weak highly vulnerable and prone to take extreme steps including self-annihilation. He warned of a further worsening of the situation if the rulers did not wake up from their slumber and started undoing the extremely adverse effects of their own follies.

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.