Shehbaz serves legal notice on Daily Mail

Says he was in exile in UK at the time when the 2005 earthquake hit Pakistan

 ISLAMABAD  : Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif on Friday served a legal notice on the British newspaper Daily Mail and its journalist David Rose for accusing him of embezzling public funds in a news story published on July 14 (Sunday).

According to the legal notice, “The article is gravely defamatory of Shehbaz, including false allegations that he misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money in the form of Department for International Development (DFID) aid intended for the victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Shehbaz denies these allegations.”

In the notice, Shehbaz said, “I am utterly appalled by these allegations. It is disgusting for the Mail to claim that I stole money from a fund for earthquake victims. Clearly were there any evidence in support of this, or any of the other allegations contained in the article against me, then I would have been arrested and charged.

“This appears to be yet another politically motivated campaign against me and my family by the current government of Pakistan, which, according to the article, granted the journalist ‘exclusive access to some of the results of a high-level probe ordered by [Pakistani Prime Minister] Imran Khan’ including a ‘confidential investigation report’ and highly unusual access to ‘interview key witnesses held on remand in jail’.”

Shehbaz stated, “At no stage were the allegations properly put to me in advance of publication. Had they been, I would have pointed out – among other matters – that at the time of the earthquake in 2005, I was not even in Pakistan, but living in exile in the UK.

“I value my professional and personal reputation very highly and will do all that is necessary to clear my name of these terrible allegations, and will pursue this claim through the courts of England and Wales, if that is what is required.”

Rose took to Twitter to give a reply, “I’m only going to make one comment on Shehbaz Sharif’s recent statements. He complains the earthquake was in 2005, before he became CM. But according to evidence already aired in a Pakistani court, the alleged thefts from the quake relief fund were in 2009 and 2011. Refutation?”