ISLAMABAD - Former finance minister Ishaq Dar has faced embarrassment in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after its anchor rebuked him for rejecting corruption charges against his party’s defacto leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
Appearing BBC’s television programme ‘HardTalk’ hosted by Stephen Sackur , Dar claimed that it had been written in both the corruption cases’ judgment which declared Nawaz Sharif as convict that the prosecution had not been able to prove any corruption, kickback and loss to the national exchequer.
Rebuffing his assertions, the anchorperson said, “I am sorry sir, but it is quite clear that he (Nawaz) is a convicted criminal and again the accountability court which works alongside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) found against Mr. Sharif, and I believe he was given a 10-year sentence that was ultimately reduced to seven years and he was then allowed to come London on medical grounds the same medical grounds due to which you are in London now.”
The anchor also questioned the credibility of the former finance minister and Nawaz Sharif for leading the anti-campaign government in Pakistan.
During the interview, Ishaq Dar asserted that he only owned a single property, which was his sole residence in Pakistan, and denied allegations of his property interests abroad after the anchor pressed him to disclose his property record.
When the former finance minister claimed that he had clean tax record, Sackur asked why he did not go to Pakistan and make his case before the court of law.
He also asked him if he was in London for the last three years to evade judicial process. Ishaq Dar also had to earn humiliation when the host quoted the European Union report to reject his allegation of rigged elections in 2018.
Dar was declared an absconder by the Supreme Court in 2017 when he failed to appear before it since he was in London, reportedly undergoing medical treatment. Since then, he remains in London.
Dar also came under severe criticism on social media network sites as the netizens grilled him for his mockery on the international talk show.
