Govt rebuts news item

ISLAMABAD: A spokesman of the government has expressed surprise over the twist given by Mr Ansar Abbasi in his story ‘Who filed the reference’ despite clarification by the highest office in the land.

The spokesman regretted that a person of the standing of Mr Ansar Abbasi instead of admitting his mistake is misinterpreting the words “refer” and “complaint", and again trying to distort the facts and mislead the people.

Ansar Abbasi adds: The News story might have hurt some egos in the government but the intention of this correspondent as well as the newspaper is to bring facts before the readers. Just for the information of the spokesman, who was assigned to issue this rebuttal, even Dawn's lead story highlighted the fact about the Law Ministry's clarification that Asset Recovery Unit's report led to cases against judges.

This correspondent took a further step and talked to the ARU spokesman for Unit's version. The spokesman through a WhatsApp message had conveyed to this correspondent that the Unit is not a complainant in the matter. We presented before the readers what the Law Ministry said and how the Unit respondent. There was no intention to hurt anyone. The News standby its story.