We are sellouts if we report Imran’s flats, not if it’s about Nawaz Sharif’s
ISLAMABAD: “We were not ‘sold’ when The News reporter Umer Cheema broke the story of flats of Nawaz Sharif but we were labelled as such the moment we broke the story of Imran Khan’s flat. People know well that the Jang Group has always reported stories against the governments of the time, be it corruption or otherwise,” said The News reporter Ahmad Noorani in response to criticism of Imran Khan on a TV channel without mentioning his name.
Instead of proving The News stories wrong which were about his hidden be-naami offshore company Niazi Services Limited that remained operational till October 2015, PTI chief Imran Khan started leveling allegations against anyone who talks with proof.
He said the story carrying details of this company was broken by Jang and The News and Imran Khan admitted it within 24 hours of its publication. He said Imran Khan doesn’t think of anything when he levels allegations against others. He said Imran escapes when the victim of his allegations goes to court.
He said the Jang Group and Geo has been facing countless allegations and the democratic way is to either confront the allegations which are raised on the media with facts or correct yourself. Noorani said it was he who got the relevant record from the UK government to prove that the Sharif family bought these flats in 1993 when they were claiming that they bought them after 2006.
He said at that time Imran used to lambast the government on account of the offshore companies and “we were not a sold-out media house” then but when it was reported that Imran Khan hid his offshore company for 33 years and tried his best to continue hiding it till the late night of Thursday, May 12, 2016, we became “a sold-out media house”.
Imran Khan only admitted owning an offshore company Niazi Services Limited during a press conference at Heathrow Airport London after The News published its story based on official documents of three governments. “He was left with no other option at that time,” Noorani said.
The PTI chief even forgot that on Friday when PTI followers were shocked to know about the benaami offshore company of their leader, The News also published another detailed story proving that the Al-Towfeeq Investment Fund Loan Default case of 1999 is clear evidence of Sharif’s ownership of offshore companies and the Mayfair flats since the early 1990s. The PTI chief now has started quoting this case as the strongest evidence against the Sharif family without giving credit to The News.
Geo and Jang Group are the most popular media group of the country and loved by Pakistanis and others across the world merely because of the basic reason that it shows both sides of the picture, reports viewpoints of all sides and it leaves it up to its readers and viewers to decide, he said.
He said it is unethical for Imran Khan to run a Benaami offshore company without even declaring it in Pakistan, while in the same breath he criticises this practice.
