Mail dropped defence of defamatory article against PM Shehbaz months ago: Carter Ruck

LONDON: Famous defamation and reputation management law firm Carter-Ruck has revealed that Daily Mail had several months ago stopped defending the defamatory and false allegations of corruption published in a report by David Rose against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. 

In a statement published on its website, Carter-Ruck revealed that it had become clear to Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) that it has no defence to support its allegations of corruption against PM Shehbaz in the Department For International Development (DFID).

The paper accused Shahbaz Sharif and his son of benefiting from the DFID aid grant for Pakistan in 2005.

“After the Mail/MailOnline refused to withdraw or apologise for the articles, Prime Minister Sharif issued legal proceedings in January 2020. In its defence, served in February 2022, the Mail finally conceded that it did not seek to defend the allegations it had published with regard to alleged misuse of British public money and DFID aid," Carter-Ruck said.

In the statement, headlined “Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan secures apologies from The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online”, Carter-Ruck added: “The Mail Online and the Mail on Sunday (published by Associated Newspapers) have apologised to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif, over false and very seriously defamatory allegations published in articles on 14 July 2019 under the headline ‘Did the family of Pakistani politician who has become the poster boy for British overseas aid STEAL funds meant for earthquake victims.”

The firm said the allegations of corruption were wholly untrue and had no foundation in truth.

The statement added: “The articles included [wholly untrue] allegations that Prime Minister Sharif when acting as Chief Minister of the province of Punjab, embezzled British public money that had been paid to the Punjab province in DFID grant aid intended for the victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Prime Minister Sharif has always categorically denied these allegations, which he believes were politically motivated.”

 “The Mail has now finally apologised to Prime Minister Sharif and agreed to permanently remove the online article. Prime Minister Sharif was represented by Alasdair Pepper, Antonia Foster and Katherine Hooley."

The publication started making offers of amends and apology within a year after Shahbaz Sharif and Imran Ali Yousaf issued proceedings against the publication.

In his claim against the Daily Mail newspaper, PM Shehbaz Sharif was defended by lawyers at Carter-Ruck.

PM Shehbaz Sharif had addressed a joint press conference with Carter-Ruck lawyers to announce proceedings against the paper a few weeks after the publication of the defamatory article.

Sharif’s son-in-law Yousaf was represented by PTI UK leader Waheed Ur Rehman Mian’s law firm.

The Mail published an online apology to PM Shehbaz on Thursday and removed the article by David Rose from its website on the same day.

On Sunday, Britain’s largest circulating Mail on Sunday (MoS) newspaper further published an apology to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in one million print editions as part of the deal to apologise online as well as in print editions after the global removal of the false and defamatory article by Rose.

The printed apology was available in print at thousands of supermarkets and news agents across the UK as per the agreement that ANL would first apologise online (on December 8, 2022) and then print the same apology on the following Sunday (December 11, 2022).