Pakistani media mogul arrested in land allotment case

A Pakistani media mogul was arrested on Thursday by the country's anti-graft body on charges that he got lands on a prime location in Lahore at a throwaway price in 1986 from then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif.

Mir Shakilur Rehman, the editor-in-chief of Jang/Geo media group, was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau, after he failed to submit a satisfactory answer to the bureau's questions, officials said.

A NAB official told PTI that it arrested Rehman during his appearance before a joint investigation team of NAB in its Lahore headquarters.

"Rehman was arrested for receiving 54 plots each measuring one kanals land on a prime location in Lahore from former prime minister Sharif on a throwaway price," the official said.

He said the 54 plots in Jauhar Town H block were illegally allotted to Rehman in 1986 by Sharif, who was then chief minister of Punjab.

"Nawaz Sharif had obliged Rehman to have his media's support in return," the official alleged, adding that he will be presented before an accountability court on Friday.

The Jang/Geo group said in a statement that the property in question had been acquired from a private party and all evidence of this was provided to NAB including the legal requirements fulfilled like duty and taxes.

"In the past 18 months, NAB has sent our reporters, producers and editors, directly and indirectly, over a dozen notices, threatening for a shutdown of our channels (via Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) due to our reporting and our programmes about NAB. In its defense, NAB has in writing said it is a constitutionally protected institution that cannot be criticised. NAB also has through several means tried to persuade us to go slow, to stop stories and to do others in its favour at the expense of the full truth.

"We will not stop any reporter, producer or anchor from any story that is on merit and at the same time will try to include NAB's version as well. In this case, NAB denies all allegations and claims they are independently pursing all cases and have not been asked to do by the democratically-elected Government in Islamabad," the statement said.

During his election campaign in 2018, Imran Khan had said he would put Rehman behind bars for blackmailing and tax evasion. Media has been facing 'severe curbs' since Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf came to power after July 2018 polls.