Shahzad Akbar rejects Broadsheet’s ‘cuts’ claims

ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister’s Advisor on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar said Thursday that the allegations of Kaveh Moussavi, owner of Broadsheet LLC, regarding alleged bribes or “cuts” by both civilian and military officials were baseless and borne out of the bitterness of Moussavi over not getting further contracts from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

M. Akbar, the all-powerful accountability Czar who enjoys immense confidence of Prime Minister Imran Khan, said he met Mr Moussavi only twice. “I met him in 2019 through a mutual friend in London. Only two meetings took place,” Mr. Akbar said while talking to The Nation. However, the allegations about a cut are from a meeting that allegedly took place in 2018, he said. Moussavi claims that someone met him as a representative of the government of Pakistan and asked for a cut to get a new deal signed with the PTI government.

This claim is vehemently disputed by the accountability advisor who stressed that no military or civilian official offered such a thing. “We don’t know any General Malik in NAB. There was no such person in NAB in 2018,” Akbar said.

The advisor added that Mr Moussavi did not convey any concerns directly to him in the past and only now has come up with a series of allegations. “He can go to the police in London and get investigations done,” he said. “As far as the Pakistani government is concerned, no such meetings took place and neither was any underhand offer made to Moussavi.”

The advisor to the prime minister on accountability that Mr Moussavi cannot be trusted and his allegations hurled towards Mr. Akbar, in particular, are a result of his bitterness for not getting a renewed contract with the PTI government.

“He is a very sharp person, and we have a trust deficit with him. He is unhappy with me because I refused to extend his contract and told him he cannot come near NAB,” the advisor said, referring to the owner of Broadsheet.

Broadsheet remains under the supervision of a court-appointed liquidator and is beneficially owned by Mr. Moussavi, who has previously served a year-long prison sentence in England for contempt of court.

He said PML-N has tried to spin recent YouTube interviews of Mr Moussavi for political mileage. Unlike Gen. Malik who does not exist, another person named by Moussavi does exist, Akbar said.  Anjum Dar is an official of the PML-N in Germany and is very close to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the advisor said.

The advisor on accountability said that Prime Minister Khan has made it abundantly clear that he will not back down from his drive against corruption and will not give any concession or relief to the protesting opposition politicians. The Pakistani government has an interest in the Avenfield apartments because they were bought with money looted from the people of Pakistan, Mr Akbar said.