UK\u2019s Daily Mail on Sunday has accused former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif of embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money from aid given by Britain\u2019s Department for International Development (DFID) and laundering it in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
The report says DFID poured more than \u00a3500 million of UK taxpayers\u2019 money into Punjab in the form of aid during Shehbaz\u2019s tenure as chief minister. \u201cLegal documents allege that Shahbaz\u2019s son-in-law received about \u00a31 million from the fund established to rebuild the lives of earthquake victims,\u201d the newspaper reported. \u201cStolen millions were laundered in Birmingham and then allegedly transferred to Shahbaz\u2019s family\u2019s accounts by UK branches of banks including Barclays and HSBC,\u201d it added. \u201cBritain\u2019s National Crime Agency is working closely with Pakistani investigators and Home Secretary Sajid Javid is discussing the possible extradition of members of Shahbaz\u2019s family who have taken refuge in London,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
The report states that the newspaper was last week given exclusive access to some of the results of a high-level probe ordered by Prime Minister Imran Khan and also allowed to interview key witnesses held on remand in jail, including a UK citizen Aftab Mehmood. Mehmood, according to the report, claims he laundered millions on behalf of Shehbaz\u2019s family from a nondescript office in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif vowed to sue the British newspaper for publishing \u2018fabricated\u2019 and \u2018misleading\u2019 story. Taking to the microblogging site, Twitter, on Sunday, the leader of the opposition in National Assembly alleged that the story was published at the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan and his special assistant on accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar. \u201cHave decided to file law suit against Daily Mail. The fabricated and misleading story was published at the behest of Imran Khan and Shahzad Akbar. We will also launch legal proceedings against them. Btw IK has yet to respond to three such cases I filed against him for defamation,\u201d he posted on his Twitter handle.<\/p>\n
The response comes minutes after PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, while addressing a news conference, refuted the controversial story, saying the party will take legal action against the prime minister, his special assistant and British publication. The PML president said that he will also launch legal proceedings against the prime minister and his assistant. \u201cIK [Imran Khan] has yet to respond to three such cases I filed against him for defamation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UK\u2019s Daily Mail on Sunday has accused former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif of embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money from aid given by Britain\u2019s Department for International Development (DFID) and laundering it in the United Kingdom. The report says DFID poured more than \u00a3500 million of UK taxpayers\u2019 money into Punjab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21,2,147,3],"tags":[209,324],"class_list":["post-2148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-news","category-pakistan","category-politics","category-world","tag-pml-n","tag-shahbaz-sharif","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}