Daily Mail stands firm on report against Shehbaz Sharif’s money laundering

LONDON: Daily Mail Online newspaper publisher Associated Newspapers Limited has submitted its response in Shehbaz Sharif defamation case for publishing a story regarding money laundering by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) family and companies.

The Daily Mail Online publisher submitted its response one year after a preliminary hearing in the Shehbaz Sharif defamation case. The publisher stood firm on the story on Shehbaz Sharif in its 50-page response filed in the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division on Sunday.

The publisher detailed that Shehbaz Sharif had control over the provincial budget as well as public-private partnerships during the period in his political office as the Punjab chief minister between 1997 and 1999 and then 2008 and 2018, Dawn News reported.

It alleged the “receipt of laundered funds” by Shehbaz Sharif’s immediate family and companies under their control. It also claims the receipt of fictitious foreign remittances by the claimant’s immediate family, which it says is evidence by SWIFT records.

The response alleges that from around 2015 onwards, “payments of fraudulent foreign remittances began to be routed through a further layer of bank accounts belonging to third-party companies which, although independently owned, were in fact operated at material times at the behest of the Claimant and his Immediate Family”.

Daily Mail Online had alleged in a 2019 story that Shehbaz Sharif misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money, in particular government aid intended for the victims of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.

David Rose said in a Twitter message, “Pakistani friends: Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Mail on Sunday, has today filed detailed defences to the defamation claims brought by Shehbaz Sharif and Ali Imran (son-in-law). Copies are available from the High Court in London. Our defences say that my story of 2019 is true.”

He added, “I regret that I cannot comment further. The defences filed will speak for themselves.”

Pakistani friends: Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Mail on Sunday, has today filed detailed defences to the defamation claims brought by @CMShehbaz and Ali Imran. Copies are available from the High Court in London. Our defences say that my story of 2019 is true.

— David Rose (@DavidRoseUK) February 28, 2022

Following the UK daily’s claims, Shehbaz Sharif had filed a lawsuit and claimed damages as well as an injunction restraining the newspaper from publishing the ‘defamatory words’.

The story in question was written by British reporter David Rose.