The disclosure of formal court action was made at a press conference at the office of Carter Ruck by Alasdair Pepper and Antonia Foster who are representing Shehbaz Sharif in his legal case against the paper. Shehbaz Sharif was present with his lawyers at the press conference where the announcement was made.
Alasdair Pepper confirmed that the defamation claim has been issued at the London High Court’s Queen’s Bench Division against the defendants DMGT and David Rose, author of the story. He confirmed that the Mail Publications are in receipt of the claim form. It’s understood that the case will go to a trial before a judge at the Royal Court of Justice in under a year as the minimum time to get a trial date is between nine months to a year.
The lawyer said that Carter Ruck decided to move the court after failing to get a substantive response from the newspaper in several months, despite repeated requests.
He said that article in Mail papers, followed by a social media campaign of journalist David Rose was gravely defamatory of Shehbaz Sharif, carrying utterly false allegations that the former Punjab chief minister misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money in the form of DFID aid intended for the victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
He said that the DFID has already rubbished the claims made by newspaper as false and without any foundation, vindicating their client’s stance that he has never been involved in misappropriation of funds.
He said the article was a “politically motivated campaign” against the PML-N leader and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly by the current government of Pakistan. He said that Shehbaz Sharif is valued highly for his professional and personal reputation and he intends to clear his name of these absurd allegations.
Speaking at the press conference, Shehbaz Sharif said that he was determined to prove that allegations against him were false, baseless and politically motivated to malign him. He regretted that the Mail publications made allegations without any proofs.
He said it was clear that the Mail journalist was used by the PTI government by granting the journalist “exclusive access to some of the tempered results of a high-level probe ordered by Khan” including a “confidential investigation report” and unusual access to interview “key witnesses” held on remand in jail.
He said the allegations were never properly put to him in advance of publication.
Shehbaz slammed PM Imran, saying that the prime minister and his allies were behind the "fabricated and defamatory" Daily Mail story that sought to damage his reputation.
The PML-N president said the story published against him was part of the efforts by the government to tarnish his image among the masses. "Their [government] efforts are to show the PML-N in a bad light," he said.
"They couldn't compete with the PML-N in anything. Imran Khan Niazi is an expert in only one thing, ever since he retired from cricket. Lies, deceit, taking U-turns and making false allegations," he said.
He said that the Transparency International (TI)'s recent report had frightened the government, which was now attacking and victimising political opponents. The former Punjab chief minister wondered at the clarification issued by the TI Pakistan when the report had been released by the main chapter of the NGO in Berlin.
Shehbaz referred to PM's special assistant Shahzad Akbar as a 'sycophant', saying that he was also involved in getting the Daily Mail story published. He announced that legal action will be taken against the publication, saying that there was "not even a shred of evidence" against him.
"I want to ask the people of Pakistan, even if there was a shred of evidence against me, why would they [government] have a story published in the Daily Mail against me? Why else would the NAB-Niazi nexus file cases against me?" he asked.
He said that DfID had done "a great job" in training the youth of Pakistan and providing them healthcare. He said that instead of thanking DfID and the British authorities, the Pakistani government was defaming them.
"Little did they realise that while trying to hit me, they [government] are bringing a bad name to Pakistan," he said.
The Daily Mail article containing allegations against Shehbaz
In an article published on 14 July 2019 by David Rose, the Mail on Sunday had alleged that Shehbaz Sharif and his family stole British taxpayers’ money given to Pakistan’s Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) set up to help the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. The paper has alleged that Shehbaz Sharif was involved in corrupting the funds given to Pakistan by the British taxpayers.
Shehbaz had served first legal notice to the newspaper on July 26, alleging that David Rose’s report was “politically motivated”. He alleged that since the publication of the story, David Rose tweeted several times challenging Shehbaz Sharif to take action against his paper. On many occasions, he responded to users on the social media site telling that Shehbaz Sharif has take no action.
The DFID refuted claims made by The Mail on Sunday of aid money being embezzled and laundered by Shehbaz and his family. Rejecting the assumption that UK taxpayers’ cash, meant for earthquake victims, was stolen by Shehbaz, DFID maintained that, “our robust systems protected UK taxpayers from fraud”.
In a statement, a DFID spokesperson said, “The UK’s financial support to ERRA over this period was for payment by results – which means we only gave money once the agreed work, which was primarily focused on building schools, was completed, and the work audited and verified.”
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