KARACHI : PPP leader and former Sindh minister Sharjeel Memon on Tuesday excused himself from appearing before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the fake accounts scam.

In a letter to the NAB Rawalpindi, he said he could not appear before it today due to the ongoing budget session in the Sindh Assembly and requested that the hearing be rescheduled to a later date, assuring that he will turn up before it.

NAB officials confirmed to have received the letter from Sharjeel Memon with the investigation officer of the case getting back to him to inform him about issuance of his summon next month.

The PPP leader was likely to be quizzed about his alleged involvement in financial wrongdoings during his stint as the Sindh local government minister. Former Sindh minister is also accused of taking kickbacks, the bureau said.

He is facing a number of cases, including ones related to a multi-billion scam in the Sindh information department and owning more assets than his known sources of income justify.

PPP Leader Sharjeel Memon and 16 others have been charged with misappropriating advertisement funds of the information department to the tune of Rs5.76 billion. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against them in 2016 over involvement in alleged irregularities in awarding contracts to different newspapers and channels for running public interest advertisement and others.

They inflicted a loss of Rs5.76 billion to the national exchequer, the bureau said.

Islamabad : Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain has said that Government is committed to provide facilities to the journalists.

In a meeting with a delegation of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists in Islamabad, the information minister said Sehat cards will be provided to the journalists on priority basis.

The information minister said special packages will be introduced in Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme and Kamyab Jawwan Programme for journalists.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is ready to be a partner for peace in Afghanistan with the United States — but cannot host US bases in the country, these views were expressed by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in his article in “The Washington Post” on Tuesday.

Pakistan and the US have the same interest in Afghanistan, said the premier and added Islamabad opposes any military takeover of Afghanistan, which will lead only to decades of civil war. “History proves that Afghanistan can never be controlled from the outside.”

PM Imran Khan further said in his opinion in The Washington Post that, Pakistan has suffered so much from the wars in Afghanistan. More than 70,000 Pakistanis have been martyred. While the United States provided $20 billion in aid, losses to the Pakistani economy have exceeded $150 billion.

There are more than 3 million Afghan refugees in our country — if there is further civil war, instead of a political settlement, there will be many more refugees, destabilizing and further impoverishing the frontier areas on our border. We are even now fencing Pak-Afghan historically open border almost completely.

The premier said if Pakistan were to agree to host US bases, from which to bomb Afghanistan, and an Afghan civil war ensued, Pakistan would be targeted for revenge. We simply cannot afford this. We have already paid too heavy a price. Meanwhile, if the United States, with the most powerful military machine in history, couldn’t win the war from inside Afghanistan after 20 years, how would America do it from bases in our country?

He hoped that the Afghan government will show flexibility in talks with the Taliban for enduring peace and stability in the war-stricken country.