Dar denies owning two flats in London

LONDON: Former finance minister Ishaq Dar has rejected the claim by a government minister and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on accountability that he owns two flats in London.

Ishaq Dar has said that the claim by Shahzad Akbar, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability (minister of state), that he owns two flats in London is “utterly false, vindictive and part of the ongoing scripted campaign against me” and challenged him to publicly share details of the flats that he claims to have found.

Ishaq Dar issued the rebuttal in reaction to a joint press conference of Shahzad Akbar and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Friday in which Shahzad Akbar claimed: “We have found two more flats of Ishaq Dar in London which were not part of this case before. We have passed details of these flats to the NAB with a request to make it part of the reference (against Ishaq Dar). There are many benamis in the NAB reference. These two flats are in the name of Ishaq Dar.”

The former finance minister said: “I categorically reject the lie of Shahzad Akbar that I own two flats in London. This claim is utterly false, vindictive, mala fide and part of the ongoing scripted campaign against me. I challenge Mr. Akbar to produce proof of ownership of these flats before public and share details of these properties without wasting time.”

Ishaq Dar said that he doesn’t own any property outside of Pakistan. “As a matter of fact, I don’t own any property outside Pakistan, neither in London as claimed by Mr. Akbar nor in any other part of the world. Furthermore, I do not own any Benami asset whatsoever in any part of the world,” he insisted.

Ishaq Dar claimed that the government minister lied to divert attention from the failure of government to deal with real issues. “It is obvious that this false claim being made by Mr. Akbar is nothing more than a typical PTI trait of creating false stories and lies to divert attention of the public from their failures. Mr. Akbar's blatant lie is no more than an attempt to justify his position in the role he has been entrusted with. It’s an insult to Pakistani taxpayers that ministers sit on the state TV and shamelessly lie,” Ishaq Dar said.

He said the PTI government will be using the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against him for further revenge. “The claim by Mr. Akbar that he has found two flats in my name is nothing but continuation of malicious propaganda against me and to try to somehow befool the public and continue with political victimisation without any evidence or truth attached to it. His claim that he has passed details of the two alleged flats to the NAB means that the politicised NAB will be yet again used to run more fake stories and continue to target me on false grounds,” said Ishaq Dar.