ISLAMABAD: Special Assis­tant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said on Sunday that PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif had neither filed a lawsuit against UK-based newspaper The Mail nor would he do so.

“Shahbaz Sharif has only lodged a complaint with the newspaper that the report it has published (about his alleged corruption) was not in public interest and his point of view has not been incorporated in it,” he said.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Akbar said if Shahbaz Sharif did not take his case to a UK court, he (Akbar) would himself move the court against the Sharifs. “David Rose, the journalist who has exposed corruption of the Sharifs, stands by his story,” he said, adding the British soil had been used by the Sharif family for money laundering.

The Mail in its report has accused Mr Sharif of money laundering and stealing British taxpayers’ money given to Pakistan’s Earthquake Recons­truction and Rehabilitation Authority, which was set up to help the victims of 2005 earthquake.

If govt has evidence of Sharifs’ corruption, it should furnish it in court instead of holding press conferences, says PML-N

Mr Akbar said instead of filing a case in a court of law, Shahbaz Sharif had only lodged a complaint with the newspaper and had not contradicted the story.

“The PML-N had claimed that it would file a lawsuit not only against the newspaper but also against Prime Minister Imran Khan and me. However, nothing has so far been done in this regard,” Mr Akbar said. “We are confident that Shahbaz Sharif will never file a case in a UK court.”

He said false news was being run for the last two days that Mr Sharif had filed a case against the UK-based daily, but he had only lodged a complaint with the newspaper and not with any British court.

The SAPM said he was eagerly waiting for the opposition leader to take him to a UK court because he (Akbar) had a lot more to prove corruption of the Sharifs than what the newspaper had published.

“Shahbaz Sharif is already facing corruption cases in Pakistan and if he moves a UK court, we will provide all the evidences we have and the case can be decided in two months in the UK. On the other hand, such cases can take two years to conclude in Pakistan.”

“The report has just exposed five per cent of the Sharifs’ malpractices, but we have evidences of their 95pc corruption,” he claimed.

Mr Akbar said one of the key accused in the $26 million money laundering and telegraphic transfer case against the Sharifs, Aftab Akbar, was in Lahore jail.

“Shahbaz Sharif should tell us who are Manzoor Elahi and Mehmood Ahmed,” Mr Akbar added.

In reply to a question regarding the recovery of looted wealth from the former rulers, he said the best thing was that they should go for plea bargain, deposit the plundered wealth in the national exchequer and win freedom. If not, “we have other ways to recover the looted wealth as we have recently confiscated the palatial residence of Ishaq Dar in Lahore”.

APP adds: Mr Akbar said if Mr Sharif filed a suit only against Daily Mail and left him (Akbar) out, then he would join the case as a third party to prove the Sharif family’s money laundering through telegraphic transfers.

He said soon after the filing of the complaint by Shahbaz Sharif, in which he claimed that he was not present in Pakistan at the time of the 2005 earthquake, David Rose, in a tweet, replied that the alleged theft in the earthquake funds had occurred in 2009 and 2011.

Mr Akbar said he had substantial evidence against Shahbaz Sharif’s son-in-law Ali Imran, who had got transferred “a huge amount” from the Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority funds.

In reply to another question regarding US drone strikes, the SAPM said the number of incidents of US drone strike against alleged militants was quite high during the Musharraf regime because at that time drones used to take off from Jacobabad airbase. “We have taken up the matter with the US authorities for compensation for innocent victims of drone strikes,” he added.

PML-N reaction

Reacting to Mr Akbar’s assertions, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the government had given the Daily Mail reporter access to the country’s secret documents.

She said the matter regarding alleged corruption of Shahbaz Sharif was sub judice, but even then the reporter had been provided confidential documents. “The government, acting out of the enmity for PML-N, has put the country’s security at stake,” she added.

Ms Aurangzeb insisted that Shahbaz Sharif had served a notice to the UK-based newspaper and wondered why the government was reacting to it.

“I have been saying from day one that the report was published at the behest of Prime Minister Khan and Mr Akbar and I stand by my words,” she said.

The spokesperson said if the government had evidence (of the Sharifs’ corruption) it should not hold press conferences but furnish the evidences before a court. “Had the government had evidence against the Sharifs, it would not have been exploring possibility of filing petty cases related to Haj, Umrah and foreign visits,” she said.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019