Defamation case: Daily Mail’s defence against Shahbaz's son-in-law based on NAB's allegations

 

• Following the publication of the article, Shahbaz and his son-in-law separately issued defamation claims. 
• The ANL has now filed its defence after a delay of one year.
• In its defence, ANL levels allegations against Imran Ali Yousaf based on his dealings with Ikram Naveed.

LONDON: The Associated Newspaper Limited (ANL) has said that former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif’s son-in-law, Imran Ali Yousaf, knowingly received money from Ikram Naveed — a senior executive of Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) — and was involved in high-level corruption.

ANL, which is the publisher of Mail on Sunday and The Daily Mail, has submitted two separate defence papers for Shahbaz and Yousaf. They had been accused by the paper in David Rose’s report in July 2019 and the reporter had said that they were both involved in corruption. However, Rose had focused on Yousaf and Shahbaz for benefiting from the UK’s aid to Pakistan through the Department for International Fund (DFID).

The DFID had immediately issued a rebuttal saying that its funds were audited in Pakistan and there was no corruption. 

Following the publication of the article, Shahbaz and his son-in-law separately filed defamation cases. The ANL has now submitted its defence after a delay of one year. 

The defence relies entirely on allegations that were first made by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after which arrest warrants for Yousaf were also issued. He left Pakistan in 2018 and has not returned ever since. Right now, he resides in west London with his wife and children.    

In its defence, the ANL has levelled allegations against Yousaf based on his dealings with Ikram Naveed, who was the finance director of ERRA from February 2009 to March 2013 and has also linked him with the alleged money-laundering of the Sharif family via his marriage to Shahbaz's daughter, Rabia Sharif.

The Daily Mail had alleged that Ikram Naveed "stole ERRA’s funds which were given after October 8, 2005, earthquake that struck Kashmir and killed nearly 90,000 people."

Read more: Solicitor says Daily Mail attacked Imran Ali Yousaf on false grounds

The ANL's defence further said: “International donors to the ERRA have included the UK Government via the Department for International Development (DFID), which disbursed £53.3 million in the relief phase of the effort and which pledged a further £70 million over the first three years following the earthquake for a range of reconstruction and rehabilitation (R&R) activities for which international funding was required.

In July 2009, the DFID’s commitment to ERRA’s R&R activities was increased from £70 million to £84 million, bringing DFID’s total funding in response to the earthquake to £139.3 million over the first five years. DFID has continued to fund ERRA subsequently.”

The ANL's defence said that Ikram Naveed “unlawfully exploited” and embezzled very substantial sums in the region of nearly £3 million and then these funds were used by him to acquire several properties.

It says that Yousaf, who owned Ali & Company and Ali & Fatima Developers, knew by July 2011 that Naveed was “embezzling funds from ERRA, a discovery which would have been confirmed by the extensive property acquisitions which Naveed had begun to make and which far exceeded any legitimate source of income (including his then-salary as Director of Finance at ERRA).

He persuaded Naveed to purchase three large units at the rate of Rs4,500 per square foot in the Ali Trade Centre development project and then entered into an arrangement with Naveed by which Naveed agreed to embezzle further public funds from ERRA for the joint benefit”.

It said that Ikram Naveed made payments to Ali & Company on July 15, 2011, which contained earthquake relief and reconstruction funds (£197,482.57) and made more payments on September 6, 2012, and March 12, 2013, for the sums of Rs20.250 million and Rs13.997 million were transferred to a bank account held by Ali & Company.

The ANL's defence said that further payments were made to Imran Ali Yousaf’s company by the companies controlled by Ikram Naveed and these were for £71,717.83, £5,564.31, £5,409.30, £175,036.60, PKR 900,000, £34,885.26, £45,678.57,£15,025.84, £60,103.38, £40,051.69 and so on.

The defence further said that it would argue that Yousaf “must have known” about Naveed's dealings, adding that Yousaf, in April 2018, appeared before the accountability court in Pakistan in respect of his role in Naveed’s embezzlement of funds from ERRA and later on fled Pakistan for London without giving answers to NAB.

The defence also mentioned the name of Imran Yousaf’s wife, Rabia Yousaf, who is named in the NAB's money-laundering reference against Shahbaz Sharif and his family members.

The defence said: “Rabia was one of the members of the Sharif family who enjoyed very substantial increases in the levels of assets held in their names which far exceeded any legitimate sources of income and the very marked increase in Rabia’s income between 2008 and 2010 would have benefited the claimant as a consequence of their relationship and would have been readily apparent to him, not least because it was reflected in increases in her expenditure, including in her ability to contribute to familial, household and business finances from which the claimant also benefited as a result of their marriage and joint business interests."

The ANL defence denied causing harm to Yousaf and rejected the case that he was treated unfairly. On July 14, 2019, the Mail on Sunday had claimed in an article published by David Rose that Yousaf had received £1 million, which he knew were embezzled from funds of Pakistan's ERRA.

Yousaf insisted that "there is evidence available” of him not knowing about the origin of funds and had no relation with Naveed, the former ERRA executive. He has sued the paper for damages and had demanded an apology.