ISLAMABAD: Let me start with an admission that Monday was an embarrassing day for me as what I reported proved wrong. As a professional journalist, I do understand that the story has hurt my readers as well as my own credibility, besides denting the repute of the newspaper, which has otherwise a long list of exclusive stories and scoops. I apologise to my readers, my colleagues and my management.
On the basis of my information from sources, I reported for The News and Jang on Monday that Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT), in its findings regarding 13 questions of apex court, had not held the Prime Minister responsible for any wrongdoing, and that the JIT had declared that the Sharif family failed to establish the money trail.
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The fact that the Sharif family failed to prove the money trail it presented before the apex court though makes part of the JIT’s main finding, but clearly the most critical and newsworthy part of my story that “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is not held responsible for any wrongdoing” proved completely wrong. The JIT report, instead, squarely accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of different wrongs.
Before filing the story, I made all possible efforts to cross-check the information, but eventually my information as well as my source proved wrong. I have been closely following the Panama case and the JIT since the very beginning, and reported many exclusive stories on the basis of documentary evidences which proved correct.
The moment findings of the JIT report became public, a vilification campaign was launched against me and the Jang Group especially on the social media ignoring our contribution. I was accused of deliberately filing a false story to please the prime minister and his family ignoring the fact that I did clearly write that the Sharifs failed to prove the money trail. It is ridiculous and absurd to suggest that any such report, which is going to be proven wrong within a few hours, will be ‘made up’ simply to support the Sharif family.
I will learn from these embarrassing moments in my journalistic life and am determined to win back the confidence of my readers and my newspaper by putting in more hard work. I am lucky to be a member of a prestigious team of investigative journalists associated with The News investigation cell, which has always taken lead in breaking exclusive stories, contributing scoops and unearthing major scandals against successive governments and powerful actors.
From Farah Hameed Dogar marks scandal, KPK’s military land (meant for families of Shuhada of Pakistan Army) allocation to politicians by the last military ruler, Karachi illegal land allotment scandal, tax reports of all parliamentarians, NICL scandal, undisclosed billons of Gen Pervez Musharraf (retd), numerous scandals against the last PPP regime, all important Panama scandal against the present rulers, offshore company of Imran Khan, etc, etc. These stories were about all political parties and the power centres. Almost all the scandals reported by The News Investigation Cell not only proved correct but also resulted in major changes in the system. Though on Monday, my story was proved wrong, the exclusive stories ‘SECP record tampering proved’ by Editor Investigations Ansar Abbasi and ‘Beneficial ownership of offshore companies by Maryam Nawaz’ by Umar Cheema proved correct as per the JIT report.
After surfacing of Panama Papers in April last year, I was the first one to officially obtain land registry documents and report on April 12 that ownership of the Sharifs London flats was not changed from early nineties until now. I reported with complete financial details and reference of official documents the huge difference between the amounts earned by Gen Musharraf after his retirement and how much money he spent on purchasing Dubai and London flats. I exclusively reported offshore company of Jahangir Khan Tareen which he had never declared. I also exposed the undeclared offshore company of PTI chief Imran Khan. After going through documents submitted by the Sharifs in the Panama Case, I reported 13 basic questions that they failed to answer on November 11, 2016.
There is not a single critical story towards the judicial process in Panama Case before April 20 judgement. However, after the formation of JIT when serious questions were raised on the formation and functioning of JIT, I reported stories merely based on stated facts and official documents. I reported that 110 out of 120 pages JIT complaint comprised unnecessary media monitoring of talk shows, press and social media. I reported that the JIT was constituted on May 5 but the media monitoring of talk shows was started on April 20 when the JIT hadn’t even came into being. I highlighted on the basis of documents that the JIT reports were not being written by the JIT members as they hadn’t even read these reports. Objections were raised on these stories but not a single fact was ever rebutted.
Today in this difficult time, I am thankful to the support of my colleagues and friends, and resolve that I will do my best to re-win the trust of my readers. Human beings make errors and I am no exception.