'I stand by my story against Shehbaz Sharif', says British journalist

ISLAMABAD: British newspaper journalist, David Rose who exposed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif for embezzling money from aid given by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) said that he stands by his story and has all evidences against Shehbaz Sharif, ARY News reported.

Talking exclusively to ARY News, David Rose rejected the claims of PML-N about the story and said that he had contact Spokesperson of PML-N Marriyum Aurangzeb many times but she didn’t respond.

“I tried many times to get the narrative of PML-N and did phone calls, messages to Marriyum Aurangzeb, but she refused to comment over it,” said Daily Mail journalist.

Commenting over the rejection of the story by the Department for International Development (DFID), David Rose said that DFID in their claim has repeated the same things which he had presented in the story with proofs.

“This DFID “rebuttal” of my story about Shahbaz Sharif is nothing of the kind,” he added.

Earlier today, a British newspaper has made startling revelations in its reporBritish authorities have decided to initiate a probe into the millions of Pounds funds the UK sent to the government of Shehbaz Sharif as an aid.

The report claimed that the paper was given exclusive access to some of the results of a high-level probe ordered by the government of Pakistan. The paper said it was also able to interview key witnesses held on remand in jail, including a UK citizen Aftab Mehmood.

He claims he laundered millions on behalf of Shahbaz’s family from a nondescript office in Birmingham without attracting suspicion from Britain’s financial regulators.

The paper said that Shehbaz 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 that legal documents allege that Shehbaz’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.

Read More: Sharif family plundered even aid for quake affectees: Dr Firdous

Investigators have 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.

Stolen millions were laundered in Birmingham and then allegedly transferred to Shehbaz’s family’s accounts by UK branches of banks including Barclays and HSBC, report said.

Self-confessed Birmingham money-launderer Aftab Mehmood told that he had his accounts audited every three months by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs – who failed to notice anything was amiss.

Britain’s National Crime Agency is working closely with Pakistani investigators and Home Secretary Sajid Javid is discussing the possible extradition of members of Shahbaz’s family who have taken refuge in London, according to the report.

Shahbaz’s son Suleman has, however, denied the allegations against him and his family. ‘No allegation has been proven. There is no evidence of kickbacks,’ he said.

Former International Development Secretary of UK, Priti Patel, has demanded an inquiry. She told the newspaper “As someone who has served as Secretary of State at DFID, I find it shocking that British funds may have been abused, especially given the background of poverty alleviation in Pakistan.