LAHORE – A British newspaper on Sunday reported Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his family were involvedin money laundering in England.
According to the report, published in Daily Mail Onlinelink,UK’s Department for International Development (DIFD) had given millions ofpounds to former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz for the rehabilitation ofearthquake victims. But, on the other hand, Shehbaz and his family wereembezzled tens of millions of pounds of public money and laundering it toBritain, the alleged report claimed.
“After winning the election on a pledge to combat corruption, Khan set up aspecial team to deal with it, the Asset Recovery Unit, headed by aUK-educated barrister. They have examined a series of suspicioustransactions running too many millions and shown that Shehbaz’s family’sassets grew enormously during the years he was in power,” the reportfurther stated.
The report further revealed, the Sharif family was worth just £150,000 in2003, but by 2018 their total assets had grown to about £200 million.“Among other properties, Shehbaz owns a 53,000 sq ft palace in Lahore,which has its own large security force,” said the report.
According to the report, the family’s legitimate income sources could notaccount for their riches.
The money, the report said, was channelled from abroad – via severalelaborate money-laundering schemes, in which Britain played a central role.
The report also claimed laundered payments were made to Shehbaz’s children,his wife and his son-in-law Ali Imran. But it added Shehbaz “was theprincipal beneficiary of this money-laundering enterprise, by way ofspending, acquisition of properties and their expansion into palatialhouses where he lived.”
The Mail on Sunday further revealed that according to the documents in itspossession, Shehbaz’s son-in-law received about £1million from a fundestablished to rebuild the lives of earthquake victims – to which DFID gave£54 million from UK taxpayers.
“Investigators have launched inquiries into alleged thefts from DFID-fundedschemes to give poor women cash to lift them out of poverty and to providehealthcare for rural families,” the report said.Stolen millions were laundered in Birmingham and then allegedly transferredto Shehbaz’s family accounts by UK branches of banks including Barclays andHSBC, it added.
Self-confessed Birmingham money-launderer Aftab Mehmood told the Mail onSunday that he had his accounts audited every three months by Her Majesty’sRevenue and Customs – who failed to notice anything was amiss, the reportsaid.
Read Top Stories
The publication stated that Britain’s National Crime Agency was workingclosely with Pakistani investigators and Home Secretary Sajid Javid wasdiscussing the possible extradition of members of Shehbaz’s family who havetaken refuge in London.
The DFID has been running a £1.75 million project designed to ‘reduce theexposure to fraud and corruption’ of UK aid. Despite it being alreadyvigilant, DFID admitted that, to date, it has referred just one individualto the Pakistani authorities for trying to steal UK funds.
Former International Development Secretary Priti Patel has demanded anenquiry be done into the corruption. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Patelsaid, ‘As someone who has served as Secretary of State at DFID, I find itshocking that British funds may have been abused, especially given thebackground of poverty in Pakistan which aid is meant to alleviate.”
Pakistan’s Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority, set up after thedevastating quake of 2005, received £54 million from DFID between then and2012, both for immediate relief and long-term schemes to rebuild victims’lives.
Ikram Naveed, the former finance director of ERRA, pleaded guilty andconfessed last November to embezzling about £1.5 million from ERRA duringthe period DFID was funding it, of which he passed on almost £1 million toAli Imran, Shahbaz’s son-in-law who is married to his daughter Rabia.
Shehbaz’s son Suleman has denied the allegations against him and his familyand said they were the product of a ‘political witch-hunt’ ordered by PMImran.
“No allegation has been proven. There is no evidence of kickbacks,” he said.
Former minister and senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal termed the report a‘pack of lies’ and ‘paid’. Talking to media, Iqbal said Daily Mail is not areliable source of information and even Wikipedia does not cite thenewspaper.
