LAHORE – Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has accused the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government of being mired in a series of major corruption scandals, claiming that new cases are surfacing almost daily.
Azma Bokhari said the province first witnessed a Rs40 billion scandal in the development sector, followed by a Rs16 billion corruption case in the education department, and now a fresh scandal in the minerals department. She alleged that gold mining contracts in five districts of KP were awarded at throwaway prices to favoured individuals.
“The so-called ‘honest and righteous’ begin their corruption in billions,” Bokhari said, adding that a leader was caught “red-handed” stealing luxury watches while his wife continued receiving diamond rings. She claimed that political associates were treating the KP treasury as “family inheritance” and looting it at will.
The minister further alleged that in the past 18 months, not a single new development project had been launched in KP, yet records of corruption were being set.
By contrast, Azma Bokhari praised the Punjab government under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, claiming it had completed a “century” of development projects without a single allegation of corruption.
She said Punjab’s projects were being completed to international standards and asserted that “there is no room for corruption, nepotism, or incompetence in Maryam Nawaz’s dictionary.”
