Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Monday urged PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif not to back away from his “promise” of filing a case against Akbar over a news story published in The Mail, which accused the former chief minister of embezzling money from foreign funds.
“You must sue me and sue me in a London court and in that court, I will produce evidence of every TT (telegraphic transfer) made by you; how kick backs were sent from here; how money was transferred through hundi and hawala,” Akbar said in a press conference in Islamabad.
Akbar’s press conference came a day after The Mail published a story alleging that the former Punjab chief minister had embezzled money from funds provided by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to aid victims of 2005 earthquake and floods in later years.
The PML-N had refuted the story on Sunday and alleged that it was published on the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Akbar. Sharif had also announced that he would sue the British newspaper as well as Akbar and the prime minister.
In Monday’s press conference, Akbar said that The Mail’s story covered only a “small part” of the corruption committed by the former Punjab chief minister. He denied that he had exercised influence in the publishing of the story.
He showed the copy of a pay order of Rs20m sent in September 2002 to private company Messers Ali and Co. which is allegedly owned by Sharif’s son-in-law, Ali Imran.
