Did The News twist PTI leader Tareen’s statement?

ISLAMABAD: A top PTI leader on Saturday admitted that his family owned an offshore company but insisted that The News twisted things and ran an old story as he had declared all his assets during a press conference on April 28. 

The April 28 press conference of Jehangir Tareen however has no mention of any offshore company owned by him or any member of his family.

Geo News aired clips of both Tareen’s press talks on April 30 and on April 28. On Saturday (April 30) he addressed a short press talk along with his party chief Imran Khan and claimed that The News story was old as he had already declared all his assets during the April 28 press conference.

In Saturday’s press talk, Tareen also claimed that he and his family had declared all assets in tax returns. However, the April 28 press talk clip shows Tareen was only sharing information about a UK property owned by his children and never disclosed that his family also owned an offshore company. 

The News clearly reported that Jehangir Tareen’s family owned an offshore company. Keeping its tradition, the Daily Jang and The News also printed the complete version of Jehangir Tareen on each and every point.

Tareen tried to confuse people by stating that he had announced all his assets inside Pakistan and abroad.

As a matter of fact, many politicians as well as businessmen own houses or flats outside Pakistan such as in the UAE, UK or USA which are known or are declared in tax returns.

Tareen himself declared in his statement of assets present on PTI’ official website www.insaf.pk, his children own an apartment in Canada having a worth Rs163,800,000. So basically it was never an issue of having some flat, house or property abroad, it was an issue of maintaining offshore companies in tax havens and making investments or buying properties in the name of those companies and most importantly not declaring the offshore companies and properties here in Pakistan.

Two facts were established beyond any doubt even after Jehangir Tareen and PTI chief Imran Khan’s joint press conference to present a clarification to the media on Saturday; 1)- Neither did Tareen nor any member of his family ever admit to maintaining offshore companies before The News story published on April 30. 2)- Tareen or any member of his family never declared owning an offshore company in any of their tax returns and Tareen himself admitted this second fact during an interview with The News.

So basically the members of his family were hiding the offshore company from tax authorities.

The News also printed the version of Tareen on account of transferring money using legal channels. Tareen, however, didn’t disclose the total amount of money he transferred outside Pakistan and the channel used to send money in all the cases. However, this is another aspect of the issue.  The first aspect is of owning offshore companies which, according to the PTI chief’s statements, are not fair in any case and are used to hide ill-gotten money or to evade taxes or both. Tareen has now admitted owning an offshore company before the whole nation but only after The News story.

The second aspect is declaring any such offshore companies with the tax authorities which were never declared by Tareen’s family. The third issue pertains to money; whether money was clean, taxed and sent abroad through legal channels.

The market value of Tareen family’s property is in millions of pounds.

However Tareen has so far provided evidence of transferring 450,000 pounds to his son and a company. Complete details are still to be investigated by the inquiry commission to be constituted soon.

Tareen also hasen’t disclosed details of property owned by his family, the name of the offshore companies, the tax haven where this offshore company is incorporated, the date of incorporation of the offshore company, bank accounts associated with the offshore company, amounts that were present or not present in these accounts and the total worth of the offshore company.

It is also worth mentioning that some news channels which beat the drums almost 24 hours a day regarding the offshore companies of others, avoided reporting the offshore company owned by Tareen’s children despite Tareen’s admission apparently.

However, when Tareen addressed a joint press conference along with Imran Khan on Saturday, these channels showed The News and Jang stories on their screens in a negative way while airing the statement of Tareen that it was an old story and facts were twisted. Instead of acknowledging an exclusive story which none of them knew, they made a mockery of journalism by ridiculing the contents of the story.

While doing this, none of these news channels informed its viewers that basically Tareen was admitting having an offshore company and that contrary to his claim that he declared the same during his April 28 press conference, he never did so. These didn’t even point as to which facts were twisted by The News as majority of the part of The News story was either his admissions regarding offshore company or was his version.

On the other hand, while some news channels and other media outlets were running a senseless campaign by pinpointing a few individuals clearly with the motives to dislodge the government instead of demanding a comprehensive and transparent investigation, the Geo and Jang Group is once again honouring its decades long traditions and presenting both the views to their viewers and readers in Pakistan and across the globe.

It was Geo and the Jang Group which exclusively presented complete details of the Panama Papers to Pakistanis which also include details about members of the prime minister’s family.

It was the Jang Group which had published investigative stories giving exact details of allegations against those in the government as well as in the opposition.

The Geo and Jang Group are the number one and most loved media group of Pakistanis living anywhere in the world merely because of its basic principle that they always show both the sides of the story and give all views despite all pressures and victimisation by the state, powerful players and the governments. Now when a majority of the news channels were continuously indulging in propaganda to pinpoint and target one party, Geo, Jang and The News reported stories against individuals from every party including the ruling PML-N, PPP, former military dictator General Musharraf’s APML or PTI.

Similarly, when The News received strong information about many offshore investments of Jehangir Khan Tareen, instead of rushing to report or sensationalise it, The News approached Jehangir Tareen and waited for three days for his version and only reported when Tareen himself admitted owning offshore the company.  Everyone knows about the power and might of Jehangir Tareen and what he and his party are up to. Everyone knows what Tareen’s party is going to do in the name of offshore companies. Some media channels are supporting these new plans of Tareen’s party.

But, if it means that these channels should also stop airing factual news or start mocking at the real news reported by other channels just because hatred, personal likes or dislikes or to simply follow an agenda to create chaos. Many forces are again starting to attack Geo and the Jang Group and even exclusive and professional work of Pakistan’s biggest media group is being attacked with a design.

There is clearly a method to this madness.