ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), a political party that had ruled the country thrice, has a history of gifting and awarding influential personalities for strengthening its rule and authority.
After an audio leak of Maryam Nawaz and Pervaiz Rasheed, the nationals were curious about the rulers who had utilised services of influential persons and later awarding them with hefty tangible and in-tangible prizes.
Here are a short review of PML-N’s gifts to influential personalities:
Attaul Haq Qasmi
Qasmi is a columnist, playwright and poet who had been awarded chairmanship of a state-owned institution, Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) in 2017.
‘Tokri’ fight: Nusrat Javeed, Maleeha Hashmey lock horns after PML-N leaders’ audio leak
Later in 2018, the Supreme Court had declared the appointment and the financial benefits to Attaul Haq Qasmi as illegal and termed it a beneficiary of illegal acts besides holding former information minister Pervaiz Rasheed, former principal secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad and former Ishaq Dar responsible.
Nazir Naji
A Pakistani senior journalist and Urdu columnist Nazir Naji had been appointed as the chairman of Pakistan Academy of Letters in 2012 for supporting the political party while remaining the journalist circles and running organise campaigns to malign rivals.
Mian Muhammad Mansha
Pakistani business magnate and billionaire Mian Muhammad Mansha is considered a close aide of PML-N leaders. Mansha’s name had also appeared in Paradise Papers in 2017 following a link to offshore companies.
‘Barking dogs’: Geo News DN keeps silence on Maryam Nawaz’s new audio leak
Mian Muhammad Mansha had alleged been gifted Muslim Commercial Bank known as MCB which acted as a donor to PML-N.
The owner of Lahore-based Nishat Group is now facing charges of illegal transactions worth Rs25 billion in a money laundering case against PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and his family.
Mujeebur Rehman Shami
Mujeebur Rehman Shami, a renowned journalist and columnist, has allegedly been gifted Daily Pakistan newspaper by the PML-N government by approving its declaration during its tenure to keep its influence on the media organisations.
He had faced allegations of possessing huge assets and businesses via illegal means of income. Shami had strongly denied the allegations and announced to present himself for any kind of accountability.
Leaked audiotape
Another audio leak of PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz had surfaced in which she was allegedly talking to former information minister Pervaiz Rasheed regarding the contacts with the media houses.
In the audio leak, they were allegedly talking about Geo News DN Rana Jawad and senior journalist Nusrat Javed without taking their names that had been sent two baskets as gifts by the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Moreover, Pervaiz Rasheed was also talking about senior analyst Hafeezullah Niazi and anchorperson Babar Sattar in the alleged telephonic conversation with Maryam Nawaz. During the conversation, Pervaiz Rasheed was heard comparing media persons to ‘barking dogs”.