The News exclusively reported Broadsheet

LONDON: The Pakistani media and politics have been obsessed for a week with the allegations made by Kaveh Moussavi, the Broadsheet CEO, about his meeting last year with a Pakistani senior official in London who asked for bribes in exchange for a contract to trace assets.

What has come as new and exclusive to the Pakistani media was reported in full detail – backed with evidence, first-hand interviews and confirmations from all sides – on May 12, 2019 in all editions of The News, Daily Jang and Geo online. The exclusive report on 12 May, 2019 headlined “Pakistan talked with Broadsheet to hire it again?” reported that Barrister Zafar Ali QC had held meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Shahzad Akbar, Asad Umar and other key officials in the government in 2019 and spoke about signing a possible new deal to trace the alleged assets of Nawaz Sharif and others.

Geo and The News reporter from Washington Wajid Ali Syed had reported exclusively on the original stories about this case (NAB/Islamic Republic of Pakistan vs. Broadsheet) when hardly anyone in the Pakistani media was aware of it and his story in The News (August 12, 2020, $26m Pakistani state funds abroad frozen) made headlines.

The News had reported all details of the key events that the Pakistani media has been talking about for the last few days. The News specifically mentioned that Barrister Zafar Ali QC met PM Imran Khan and Kaveh Moussavi and attempted to broker a deal which fell apart when a senior official demanded bribes from Moussavi in London.

On 27 December 2018, The News reported under the headline that “NAB has lost case and will pay around Rs8 billion after losing the case” in reference to the London High Court verdict against the NAB. The report detailed the full amount of what Pakistan will pay. The NAB issued a statement the following days terming The News report “propaganda” against the state institutions. Nearly two years later at the end of December 2020, each and every work reported by The News was proven right when around $29 million was seized from Pakistan’s accounts as detailed in the story published in the same paper headlined “A messy affair: Pakistan pays Rs4.59 bn to British firm for lost case” on 1st January 2021.