Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar has taken oath as a senator after arriving from London a day earlier alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Commenting on the development, journalist Ahmed Quraishi said in a series of tweets that Dar, who is likely take charge of the finance portfolio soon, has returned to Pakistan after defeating a smear campaign, which was launched against him by some news channels from 2014 to 2018.
#Pakistan‘s incoming Finance Minister @MIshaqDar50 returns after defeating unprecedented smear campaign from 2014 to 2018 based on #fakenews that fell apart in courts in both the #UK and #Pakistan. A Pakistani TV network apologized and shutdown British operations as a result /1 pic.twitter.com/zSu1VvWYXo
— Ahmed Quraishi (@_AhmedQuraishi) September 27, 2022
He said that the allegations of money-laundering and corruption against the senator were proved wrong in the courts of United Kingdom and Pakistan. He added that ARY News had led the smear campaign and later issued an apology to Dar for airing defamatory allegations of corruption and abuse of power, besides paying millions of rupees as damages and legal costs to the senator after losing a defamation case in the UK.
He further said that Dar had donated the money, which was received in damages from the news channel, to a charitable trust for the welfare of poor people.
It merits mentioning here that Dar had won his defamation case against ARY News in October last year. The news channel’s broadcaster in the UK, NVTV, had broadcast allegations of corruption against the senator. In an apology to Dar at the London High Court, the NVTV had accepted that the allegations were false, fabricated and baseless.
“We unconditionally apologise to Mr Ishaq Dar for the significant distress, upset and embarrassment which these broadcasts have caused him. We have agreed to pay Mr Ishaq Dar substantial damages for libel and to pay his legal costs,” the NVTV had said.
