LONDON: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar sued a Pakistani private TV channel for defamation over the false allegations of corruption aired by former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Farrukh Habib on the channel’s UK station. The case has been won.
Allegations of “money laundering”, “criminal activities”, “opening fake accounts” and “escape in Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s plane” were leveled when Dar returned to Pakistan in September 2022 to take over the portfolio of the finance ministry.
However, the TV channel compromised with Dar and issued an apology, clearly stating that the unhinged allegations of criminal activities by PTI leader Farrukh Habib were “totally false, baseless and false”.
The channel apologized to Dar, saying it was “deeply” sorry for airing the false allegations of former PTI MLA Habib from Faisalabad.
The channel also said that it confirms that Dar is a man of great reputation and integrity who has never been involved in corruption and has always worked diligently for the betterment of Pakistan.
The finance minister took the legal route after the allegations were aired by the channel on 25 September 2022 and 26 September 2022 during the program “Night Edition with Shazia Zeeshan” on TV and YouTube channel.
During the show, Habib asserted that Dar was “returning to Pakistan to collect proceeds of criminal activities from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz regime. And that former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Together with Sharif, Britain will return to Pakistan to embezzle and launder the proceeds of illegal activities.
