PTI leader in UK claims to own bundles of cash shown by Hareem Shah in video

LONDON: A British Pakistani businessman and former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate for 2018 elections has emerged in defence of TikTok star Hareem Shah, saying that the bundles of cash in UK Sterling Pounds that Hareem Shah floated in her social media video belonged to him and there was no money-laundering of any kind.

Daniyal Malik came out in Hareem Shah’s defence in an interview with Geo and The News in East London -- where Hareem Shah is staying these days with her cousin on vacations – said that the cash of thousands of Pounds seen in the video was legitimate and clean and he had handed over the cash to Hareem just to make a “fun video”.

Daniyal Malik stood on PTI’s ticket in the election of 2018 for PTI from NA-68 Gujarat against Hussain Elahi and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali. He lost the election and returned to the UK to run his marketing and money-transfer business.

Standing alongside Hareem Shah, Daniyal Malik said the cash belonged to his legitimate business and confirmed that the cash has been deposited in the bank since then with receipts and all legal requirements.

Daniyal Malik, who runs a real estate and money exchange business in East London’s Leytonstone area, challenged the government of Pakistan to catch the real money-laundering dons.

Hareem Shah spoke to this correspondent here after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) announced it had launched a money laundering probe against the TikTok star after she claimed that she had travelled from Pakistan to the United Kingdom with a significant amount of cash.

Daniyal Malik said: “I have stood as PTI’s candidate and fought hard for the ideal of the party. I am a Sadiq and Ameen and everyone knows that in Gujrat and I need no introduction. This was my business money.

Hareem is like my baby sister. She was visiting me and saw the cash in my hands which I was going to deposit in the bank. She asked me if she can make a video and I said that’s fine. That’s the whole story.

Malik said he will support Hareem Shah at every forum. He asked Federal Minister Sheikh Rashid and others to go after the real law violators instead of targeting Hareem Shah because she had criticised the poor performance of the government.

When the furor erupted in the Pakistani media, Hareem Shah clarified that the video was made only for fun. She showed to this reporter her passport showing that she had traveled from Karachi international airport to Doha, Qatar on January 10 and didn’t leave for London from Karachi.

The FIA said it has decided to write a letter to the UK's National Crime Agency to take action against Hareem Shah whose real name is Fiza Husain but Hareem Shah said the FIA can write letter to anyone it wants because there is no case and nothing wrong happened.

Hareem Shah said she will be traveling to Pakistan in a few weeks and nobody can stop her from being in her motherland. She said the government was over-reacting on the video and showing that it doesn’t have better things to do.

Hareem Shah said that the govt was targeting her because she had expressed solidarity with the victims of the Murree tragedy and questioned why the govt had done nothing to save lives of nearly two dozen innocent people who froze to death in Murree. Hareem Shah said she had lamented that the value and ranking of Pakistani passport has gone down and inflation was killing poor people and that’s the reason why she is being targeted. She said she will continue to speak the truth and nobody can stop her from doing that. “I have never done anything illegal. I will always follow the law but the govt functionaries need to relax and do their job to help the masses.”

Hareem Shah is currently visiting London and will be taking part in meet and greet events of the British Pakistani community. She has a large fan following and has been in headlines on a regular basis.