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London
UK tabloid Daily Mail apologized to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over a 2019 article accusing him of stealing British aid money for earthquake victims.
The news story, ‘Did the family of a Pakistani politician who became a poster boy for British foreign aid steal funds for earthquake victims,’ by journalist David Rose, was published on July 14, 2019, while former Prime Minister Imran Khan was in India. Power
The article alleged that Sharif and his family members misappropriated funds from over £500 million ($612 million) in aid provided by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake while he was the Chief Minister of Punjab, Pakistan. The largest province.
Both Sharif and DFID denied the allegations, with the former filing a defamation case against the newspaper in the UK High Court, demanding damages, damages and an apology.
In a statement published on its website on Thursday, the British newspaper said that “we were informed of the investigation by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau against Mr Sharif and indicated that the money under investigation included a significant amount of British public money that had been paid to him. Punjab Province in DFID grant assistance.
“We accept that Mr Sharif has never been charged with any wrongdoing by the National Accountability Bureau in relation to British public money or DFID grant assistance. We are pleased to clarify this and apologize to Mr Sharif for this error.”
According to senior London-based Pakistani journalist Murtaza Ali Shah, who has been following the case, the Daily Mail has dropped all corruption charges after an out-of-court settlement with Sharif and his son-in-law Imran Ali Yusuf. The article has also been removed from all platforms of the publication as part of the agreement, he said.
After the apology, Sharif thanked God for his “goodness”, saying “brazen lies” had been exposed and “misinformation and fake news have a limited shelf life.”
Rose, the journalist who wrote the story, tweeted Friday that the newspaper did not apologize for other allegations in the article, such as covering alleged money-laundering.
He said the Daily Mail had not paid any damages or costs to the accused, but that the claims had been settled and the case was closed and the article had been removed from the internet.
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