LAHORE: Tehmina Durrani, wife of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, has demanded return of the offshore wealth to the nation even if the companies are legal.

In one of her tweets, she says that offshore companies, foreign properties and accounts may be legal but for her these are (at least) unethical.

And she equals unethical to “soul selling” which she terms, in her another tweet, a crime worse than illegal (acts).

She advises her in-laws (the house of Sharifs) to clear their name of the corruption allegations by returning all this foreign wealth.

“[The] only way to clear Sharif name is to keep [the] minimum, simplify life drastically, return all foreign and local wealth to the nation,” she says in another tweet.

Perturbed at the mentioning of her name as beneficiary of the offshore companies being a member of the Sharif family, she says had she been that rich she would have donated all to the poor people of her country.

She was embarrassed to be equated with the “maha” rich (dirty rich) league in the poverty-stricken nation.

Laughing off a news channel report making her part of a big-happy-offshore-family, Ms Durrani says she married Shahbaz Sharif 14 years ago but they (in-laws) “never met me for reasons qualified for them”.

Seeking proof from the media of her offshore wealth, she claims that she did not even inherit from her mother recalling that her parents had disowned her in 1991 for writing My Feudal Lord, her autobiography encompassing the ordeals she faced in her first marriage with former Punjab governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar.

“Proof of my name on any offshore company or foreign property or fund should be shown to the people of my country,” she demands, sarcastically commenting, “This false news makes me wonder if everyone’s crime is false! Media should not lose credibility on this scandal. It’ll be one more national loss.”

She stresses that other than a 10-marla house from her husband in Lahore she owns nothing in Pakistan and has no savings either. “So please correct this falsehood.”

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2016