PTI spokesman dodges question about assets mis-declaration

ISLAMABAD: Senior PTI leader and the party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry repeatedly dodged question in a talk show about mis-declaration of his assets and bank accounts in the name of his second wife Hiba Khan in nomination papers he filed to contest August 31, 2016 by-elections from Jhelum. 

Instead of responding to the question about mis-declaration of his assets, Fawad started attacking the journalists and said, “meray pass bhi Aap ki kaafi baatain hain” (I also know many of your secrets). 

The News correspondent Ahmad Noorani during a talk show asked Fawad Chaudhry that as he is a politician and representing a major national political party so he should also respond to the media questions. Noorani asked him whether he has declared the assets and bank accounts in the name of his second wife Hiba Khan in nomination papers he filed to contest August 31, 2016 by-elections from Jhelum. 

Noorani further questioned that if he hasn’t declared assets and bank accounts of Hiba Khan in his nomination papers, wasn’t he disqualified from contesting Jhelum by-elections and now he will not be able to contest any upcoming elections? 

Instead of responding to the question, Fawad said that it was his personal life and that Noorani was making personal attacks.   When Fawad asked Noorani that I also know many of his secrets, Noorani responded he must reveal such secrets. However, despite Noorani’s insistence, Fawad could not say a single word on this count.  

Fawad was again asked that nobody is questioning anything regarding his personal life and he is being merely asked about mis-declaration of his assets as he is a politician. Fawad continued to assert that his personal life is being attacked with this question. Fawad said that Noorani should respond to the question regarding WhatsApp call story of The News. Fawad alleged that Noorani and other team members of The News Investigation Wing followed an agenda to defame judges of Supreme Court. Fawad said that a news item was published in The News declaring that national institutions have proved all JIT allegations wrong. As Fawad continued his outburst, Noorani intervened that he wants to answer but Fawad was not allowing him to do so. Fawad, however, continued saying, “I am asking you a question. Are you driven by an agenda and are you running a maligning campaign against Supreme Court judges?” Fawad crossed all limits and questioned by making serious allegations. Fawad said, “Are you taking money to run this campaign against judges? Are you taking money from PML-N for this campaign or doing it for free?” Dr Mussaddiq of PML-N who was also present in the programme intervened and asked that by making this allegation Fawad was also accusing PML-N of bribing which is wrong. Noorani intervened and asked Dr Mussaddiq to let Fawad Chaudhry ask any question and there was no problem with his asking questions but he (Fawad) should also have the courage to listen to the answers. Fawad, who had lost his temper because of question about non-declaration of assets in the name of his second wife, said he just wanted to know whether money was being taken to run the campaign or not and as the Javed Hashmi was launched today (Wednesday) whether The News team was also launched in the same way? Noorani said that Fawad should answer the question asked to him and that he should also allow Noorani to answer the questions he was asking unstopped. Fawad said that if you want to answer the WhatsApp call question, its fine otherwise his call will be cut.

When Fawad plainly refused to answer the question about mis-declaration of his assets, Noorani responded to the question about secret WhatsApp call story. Noorani maintained that five-member bench of the apex court which heard Panama Case in its ‘Order of the Court’ directed that heads of the organizations will nominate officers for the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and the Implementation Bench will finalize the names. However, a call was made to the heads of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and they were asked to receive a secret call on Facetime/WhatsApp. During secret calls, heads of these two organizations were ‘ordered’ to nominate specific persons. These persons desired during the secret Facetime and WhatsApp calls were known to have a specific background. 

Noorani said that nobody was questioning power of the apex court to finalize any officer for the JIT and it was clear that Supreme Court judges sitting in the Implementation Bench have absolute power on this count. Noorani questioned, “When there was no question on the apex court’s authority on this count, as to why an order to announce name of officials was not issued and instead secret WhatsApp/Facetime calls were made to get the persons with specific background inducted in JIT?”  

What was the motive of such secret calls? It only exposed bias.  Ironically, Noorani was still discussing the issue and his call was dropped without Fawad’s response to the Noorani’s simple question regarding mis-declaration of assets and even without saying goodbye to him.  

After call was disconnected without giving Noorani an opportunity to respond to very serious allegations levelled against him and his team, Fawad continued outburst against The News. He said that during the tenure of the PPP government, Editor Investigations The News Ansar Abbasi reported that late Governor Salman Taseer and others hatched a conspiracy to kill the then LHC Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif. He added that now once again Ansar Abbasi and his team are running a campaing against judiciary. However, Dr Mussaddiq Malik said at this point that Noorani’s point on WhatsApp call story was clear that there is no objection to powers of the judges to appoint anybody in the JIT but the JIT was not constituted by following the mechanism evolved for this purpose. He said that Noorani raised point on making of WhatsApp calls for the purpose. This was their story. Another participant in the programme Mustafa Nawaz asked that during tenure of the former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the members for any commission were appointed by the Chief Justice himself and there was no objection at that time. 

However, as a matter of fact, during that tenure, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry used to announce the name of any such officials as member of any commission or inquiry committee in open court and no secret calls were ever made.