Daily Mail tendered an apology to Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif while withdrawing all allegations of corruption against him and his son-in-law Imran Ali Yousaf.
In an article published on July 4, 2019 Daily Mail had accused the Premier of “stealing British foreign aid money”.
The British publication also removed the said article, written by David Rose, from all platforms of Mail publishers.
The United Kingdom-based publication has failed to prove the allegations levelled by its journalist David Rose in an article against Premier Shehbaz about the alleged misappropriation of public funds.
Since the publication of the report, Shehbaz Sharif has maintained that he was not involved in any wrongdoing and also approached a court in the United Kingdom (UK) challenging the allegation — resulting in an apology from the newspaper.
Apology from the Daily Mail
In a clarification published on its website today, the British publication said: “In an article concerning Mr Shahbaz Sharif entitled ‘Did the family of Pakistani politician who has become the poster boy for British overseas aid STEAL funds meant for earthquake victims’ published on 14 July 2019 we reported on an investigation by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau into Mr Sharif and suggested that the money under investigation included a not insubstantial sum of British public money that had been paid to the Punjab province in DFID grant aid.”
It said that the premier “has never been accused by the National Accountability Bureau of any wrongdoing in relation to British public money or DFID grant aid”.
“We are pleased to make this clear and apologise to Mr Sharif for this error,” Daily Mail added.
What did the article say in 2019?
In July 2019, UK’s Daily Mail newspaper accused Prime Minister Shehbaz of “embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money and laundering it in Britain’”
The report, quoting Pakistani investigators, claimed that “some of the allegedly stolen money came from DFID-funded aid projects”.
The report — titled “Did the family of Pakistani politician who has become the poster boy for British overseas aid STEAL funds meant for earthquake victims, asks DAVID ROSE” — said the newspaper was given exclusive access to “some of the results of a high-level probe ordered by [then] prime minister Imran Khan”.
