Vilification campaign to hurt economic development: Ashtar Ausaf

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister Ashtar Ali Ausaf has condemned the campaign of vilification and slander in the press with the aim of spreading rumours for hurting economic development in the country.  He said this on Friday while talking to this news agency about the news published in a section of the press regarding the prime minister. The special assistant to the PM said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has already refuted the news item and "legal proceedings would be drawn if the said baseless news was not withdrawn by the newspaper".

It may be mentioned here that the NAB has refuted the news item "NAB to probe money-laundering case against PM in US" published in a section of the press released by a news agency on March 18, (Friday) terming it as baseless and unfounded.

According to NAB, the Bureau always adhered to the policy of not discussing individual cases in the media. "Some irresponsible elements are peddling scandalous and sensational rumours in the garb of journalism," the NAB spokesperson said. NAB has asserted that no such action is under consideration and hoped that in the true spirit of responsible journalism, an effort would always be made to verify the authenticity of the news item before going to publish it, the spokesperson said.