PML-N leader Ishaq Dar donates defamation case victory money to charity

• Ishaq Dar’s lawyers had received £85,000 from ARY’s UK broadcaster called NVTV for airing false allegations against him.
• PML-N leader says he has donated to Sharif Trust the damages that he received from ARY’s NVTV.
• PML-N leader says he was “not interested in making money” when he had filed a defamation case against ARY. 

LONDON: Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has donated the proceeds of his UK High Court defamation case victory against ARY’s UK broadcaster NVTV to a charitable trust for the welfare of poor people.

Dar’s lawyers had received in their bank account UK £85,000 (equivalent to Rs21 million) from ARY’s UK broadcaster called NVTV. The lawyers had also confirmed that their client has donated the recovery of the damages to Sharif Trust, after paying the legal fees to his legal team.

“I have donated to the Sharif Trust the damages that I received from ARY’s New Vision TV Limited (NVTV) in respect to my claim for defamation. I have made this donation for financing the treatment of poor people who wish to avail of medical facilities from the Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore. My staff will liaise with the Sharif Trust people to ensure that the said donation is utilised through the Sharif Medical City Hospital only for the treatment of the deserving poor people,” said Dar.

The PML-N leader said that he had stressed when he was filing the defamation case that he was “not interested in making money” but wanted to win an apology to set the record straight that the “allegations of money-laundering, corruption and misuse of public office were defamatory, false, baseless and big lies”.

“ARY’s NVTV apologised to me publicly in the UK, withdrew all allegations unconditionally and gave an undertaking to the High Court that it will not repeat any of these allegations,” said Dar.

The PML-N leader won the defamation case in October last year after initiating his case at the UK High Court.

ARY’s broadcaster in the UK, NVTV had broadcast allegations made by the then special assistant to PM on accountability and interior Shahzad Akbar and the Reporters’ Programme by Chaudhary Ghulam Husain and Sabir Shakir. They had alleged that Dar was involved in money-laundering, and corruption had looted billions of rupees belonging to Pakistan, had foreign accounts containing billions, used undue influence over Financial Monitoring Unit and was involved in issuing death threats to an official.

In an apology to Ishaq Dar at the London High Court, NVTV had accepted that the said allegations were false, fabricated and baseless. The TV channel had agreed to pay damages and legal costs to Dar for the hurt, embarrassment and defamation they caused. The payments to the PML-N leader were made this week after the final financial settlement was agreed.

ARY’s NVTV in the UK had apologised to Ishaq Dar over a programme by the “Reporters” in which it was asserted by Choudhury Ghulam Hussain and Sabir Shakir that the PML-N leader had stolen money from Pakistan and was willing to pay it back if allowed to return to the country. It was also asserted that Dar’s bank accounts had been traced and that they contained large sums of stolen money in the region of $1 billion.

Shehzad Akbar had also made allegations against Dar on August 8, 2019, during the Powerplay programme, alleging that the PML-N leader was responsible for the Financial Monitoring Unit in Pakistan which actively and improperly impeded its work, by preventing the key institutions from accessing systems that would assist it in its functions. 

It was further asserted that Dar had taken those actions to protect individuals who had been involved in the Choudhury Sugar Mills money laundering case.

The ARY’s NVTV apology concluded: “We unconditionally apologise to Mr Ishaq Dar for the significant distress, upset and embarrassment which these broadcasts have caused him. We have agreed to pay Mr Ishaq Dar substantial damages for libel and to pay his legal costs.”

Stone White Solicitors and Counsel David Lemer of Doughty Street Chambers represented Ishaq Dar in these proceedings