BBC standsby story on Sharifs’ London flats

KARACHI: The BBC Urdu on Thursday said it stood by its story about the flats owned by Pakistan's ruling family in the Park Lane area of London, rejecting the impression that an investigation has been launched against the reporter who filed the story.

“There is no internal investigation into this BBC reporter (Ather Kazmi) nor this news story (When were Park Lane flats purchased, or sold?),” the BBC Urdu said on its official twitter account day after local media claimed the BBC has started an internal investigation against the reporter.

“We stand by our journalism and are satisfied that this story meets our editorial standards including accuracy and impartiality,” the BBC Urdu said in another tweet.

“A few days ago BBC had published a detailed story about the history and ownership of flats of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family in London’s Mayfair area. But on Wednesday it was claimed on social and mass media in Pakistan that BBC has launched an internal inquiry against its reporter Athar Kazmi,” said BBC Urdu in a statement on its website.

“According to BBC, nobody has contacted the organization with regard to the story. There is no truth in reports published in Pakistan’s social and mass media about the inquiry into the story. BBC published this story as it met its journalistic values and editorial standards,” the statement read.  

On Friday, BBC claimed that the Sharif family have remained the only owners of the London flats since the '90s. The report further alleged that the ownership of the two flats have not changed since the '90s.

The two offshore companies named in the Panama Papers scandal namely Nescol and Nielson, were used to buy flats in London's most expensive Mayfair locality in the '90s and the ownership of the flats has remained unchanged ever since, according to the BBC report.