ISLAMABAD: Only two days after the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PMLN) filed a disqualification reference against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for allegedly having an offshore company and hiding assets abroad, Imran had accused Maryam Nawaz of running a propaganda campaign against his charities.
He said that Maryam was running a propaganda cell in the PM House while using public money and she was targeting his charities that were providing public service only in vengeance. This is not the first time that PTI has targeted Maryam for running a media cell from the prime minister’s office.
Imran passed these remarks against Maryam after some local and foreign media reports claimed that some misappropriations had been committed in the accounts of Namal College Charity and Imran Khan Foundation (IKF), both set up by the PTI chairman during fundraising in the United Kingdom.
Imran tweeted in a direct reference to PMLN lawmakers Daniyal Aziz and Talal Chaudhry, “Maryam Nawaz is running a propaganda cell in the PM House, using public money to target opponents with lies at the behest of PML-N’s Motoo Gang.” He added that first they (MNAs) targeted Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMT) and now they were targeting Namal College and IKF. “Shameful vendetta targeting charities that provide public service,” he added.
His latest tweet read, “Accusations against my charities are fabricated. Trustee and point man for Namal charity, Tahir Nawaz, has given the facts.”
The point man for Namal College Charity Tahir Nawaz rebutted all the allegations of misappropriation in the accounts of Imran’s three charities in the UK. He said, “I have no knowledge of any investigation that Imran’s three UK charities are being investigated over financial fraud and money laundering by the Charity Commission in the UK,” he said.
He rejected the allegation that the money raised for Namal College in the UK was sent for investment in Dubai offshore companies to the account of the Imran’s sister, Aleema Khan. He also refuted the charge that accounts of Namal for the year 2012 were not sent to the UK Charity Commission because of money laundering.
“There is no indication of any fear either on the charity commission website or otherwise that I have been made aware of,” he said. He said that Imran’s sister was not a trustee of Namal College Charity and was not involved in any way with the activities of Namal in the UK.
However, it was still unclear how Imran connected the publication of a report in London’s free paper, Metro, with the propaganda campaign of the PM House media cell. An office bearer of the PTI central media department said that the party had enough information that the government’s media cell was behind the publication of baseless reports.
