UK’s DFID discards Daily Mail report claiming Shehbaz laundered aid money

LONDON (92 News) – The United Kingdom’s (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) on Sunday discredited an article published by “Daily Mail”, claiming Sharif family of laundering quake victims’ aid money and embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money to Britain. It is noteworthy that Daily Mail has campaigned against Britain’s policy of spending 0.7 per cent of national income, currently about £14 billion a year, on foreign aid. In a statement issued by the DFID clearly stated that the construction of school from the aid had been completed and an audit had also been conducted in this regard. It further stated that the British tabloid failed to provide evidence regarding its news report, adding that the tax payer’s money had been protected from any fraud. “The UK taxpayer got exactly what it paid for and helped the vulnerable victims of a devastating earthquake. We are confident our robust systems protected UK taxpayers from fraud.” Earlier, former Punjab chief minister and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif allegedly laundered Britain’s aid worth millions of pounds reserved for the rehabilitation of earthquake victims, claims UK’s newspaper in its article.

Up to £500million of UK foreign aid has been poured into his province of Punjab, but, investigators claim, his family was laundering some of the money in Britain, said The Mail on Sunday (daily Mail) in its investigative report.

Some of the amount was stolen and was transferred to Birmingham and then was further transferred to the bank accounts of Shehbaz’s family in a suspicious way. The UK government has decided to investigate the aid amount. The report written by David Rose reveals how the aid money was misused to the benefit of Shehbaz and family? The report says Shahbaz Sharif visited Downing Street when David Cameron was Prime Minister, has held talks with successive international development secretaries – Andrew Mitchell, Justine Greening and Penny Mordaunt – and hosted Boris Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary. Responding to media report of ‘The Mail’ claiming Shehbaz Sharif allegedly laundered Britain’s aid worth millions of pounds reserved for the rehabilitation of earthquake victims, the PML-N rejected claims that Shehbaz Sharif, family embezzled millions given to Pakistan by the UK in aid.

Addressing a press conference, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb termed the report – an article published in UK’s media – baseless and a propaganda campaign.

She said the story was ‘planted’ in a tabloid paper. She said the paper was unreliable. She also mentioned that DFID rebutted the report. “Bring us these records, she demanded. Show the country proof of your claims,” she added. She said that the PML-N would sue the publication over the planted, unsubstantiated story. “The news was published through a controversial journalist [who works for a] UK newspaper and is based in Lahore on Imran’s behest,” claimed the PML-N spokesperson.