Suleman Shehbaz Refutes Daily Mail’s Report, Terms It Political Witch-hunt

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Suleman Shehbaz refutes Daily Mail’s report, terms it political witch-hunt

Terming the report as political revenge, Suleman Shehbaz denied the allegations against him and his family.

Islamabad (Pakistan Point News – 14th July, 2019) Suleman Shahbaz, the son of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, has refuted the claim made by British publication Daily Mail.

Terming the report as political revenge, Suleman Shehbaz denied the allegations against him and his family.

He said that they were the product of a ‘political witch-hunt’ ordered by Pakistan’s new prime minister Imran Khan.

“No allegation has been proven. There is no evidence of kickbacks,” he said.

The Sharif family, already facing charges of corruption and money laundering, had got a serious blow from the United Kingdom with the British investigators believing that Shahbaz Sharif and his family had embezzled millions of Pounds from £500 million aid given to his government in Punjab.

According to a report published in the Daily Mail, Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) had poured £500 million of UK taxpayers' money in form of aid to Punjab during the tenure of Shahbaz Sharif as chief minister.

"Yet, say investigators, all the time that DFID was heaping him and his government with praise and taxpayers' cash, Shahbaz and his family were embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money and laundering it in Britain. They are convinced that some of the allegedly stolen money came from DFID-funded aid projects," the report said.

The British daily claimed to have based its report on the interview of key witnesses held on remand in jail, including a UK citizen Aftab Mehmood consequent to a high-level probe ordered by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The paper had got access to the results of the high level probe.

In his interview, Aftab Mehmood claimed that he had laundered millions on behalf of Shahbaz's family from a nondescript office in Birmingham without attracting suspicion from Britain's financial regulators, who inspected his books regularly.

The legal documents allege that Shahbaz's son-in-law received about £1 million from a fund established to rebuild the lives of earthquake victims to which DFID gave £54 million from UK taxpayers.

Moreover, the investigators have also launched inquiries into alleged thefts from DFID-funded schemes to give poor women cash to lift them out of poverty and to provide healthcare for rural families.

Mahnoor Sheikh

The writer is News Editor, Pakistan Point. She has graduated in Mass Communication and has worked in various media houses