Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill has announced to take the journalists – Azaz Syed and Umar Cheema – to court for their remarks made about him in a recent podcast.
Addressing a presser on Monday, the party stalwart dismissed the remarks as baseless and concocted, and asked for an inquiry into the same.
"I deny the allegations categorically and refute them in the strongest words possible," Gill told media.
He said the journalists had made false allegations with 'absolute certainty'. "Nowhere did they use the words 'allegedly' or 'reportedly', except for once," he said.
Gill added that the two journalists had crossed 'three red lines' while making allegations against him.
He went on to question if there will be any probe into the claims made 'by the friends in the powerful media houses'.
“I am not asking for [sedition] cases against them, but there should at least be a questioning,” he maintained. The politician said members of his own party were asking him if the claims made had any substance in them.
'They claimed that I used to talk on a satellite phone and a laptop was recovered from me, but these claims have no basis', Gill said. “They crossed another red line when they said that I acquired the data of families of 114 officers of defense institutions.” They also confidently stated that I either acquired this data from the chairman NADRA or a DG, he said. “The journalist went on to say that I made fake Twitter accounts in the names of the people whom I had the data of, and spread fake content from those accounts.” Gill said that the ‘assignment’ was said to be 'delegated' to him by the party’s leadership, “which is, again, completely false”.
“They claimed that I had admitted being questioned by intelligence officials, but what would have I admitted to when there was no such development,” he asked.
This, Shahbaz Gill added, was the first instance where Umar Cheema and Azaz Syed had used the word ‘reportedly’.
Addressing a presser on Monday, the party stalwart dismissed the remarks as baseless and concocted, and asked for an inquiry into the same.
"I deny the allegations categorically and refute them in the strongest words possible," Gill told media.
He said the journalists had made false allegations with 'absolute certainty'. "Nowhere did they use the words 'allegedly' or 'reportedly', except for once," he said.
Gill added that the two journalists had crossed 'three red lines' while making allegations against him.
He went on to question if there will be any probe into the claims made 'by the friends in the powerful media houses'.
“I am not asking for [sedition] cases against them, but there should at least be a questioning,” he maintained. The politician said members of his own party were asking him if the claims made had any substance in them.
'They claimed that I used to talk on a satellite phone and a laptop was recovered from me, but these claims have no basis', Gill said. “They crossed another red line when they said that I acquired the data of families of 114 officers of defense institutions.” They also confidently stated that I either acquired this data from the chairman NADRA or a DG, he said. “The journalist went on to say that I made fake Twitter accounts in the names of the people whom I had the data of, and spread fake content from those accounts.” Gill said that the ‘assignment’ was said to be 'delegated' to him by the party’s leadership, “which is, again, completely false”.
“They claimed that I had admitted being questioned by intelligence officials, but what would have I admitted to when there was no such development,” he asked.
This, Shahbaz Gill added, was the first instance where Umar Cheema and Azaz Syed had used the word ‘reportedly’.