LONDON: Broadsheet owner Kaveh Moussavi has alleged that British journalist David Rose asked for a commission in exchange for his assistance in recovering the sum of about $29 million from the Pakistan government.
The journalist, who writes for The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online and whose story against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif is presently at the centre of a defamation suit, has denied asking for any commission.
Mr Moussavi approached Mr Rose In October 2019 and asked for his assistance. It has now emerged that Mr Rose set up the first meeting between Mr Moussavi and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on (SAPM) Accountability Shahzad Akbar at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, and that he was present during the meeting.
Mr Moussavi said: “David Rose said he knew Shahzad Akbar so we had a chat at my house and he later organised the meeting [with Akbar]. He [Rose] asked what was in it for him, and wanted his mortgage to be settled if Broadsheet entered into a deal with Pakistan.
“We shook hands that I would settle his mortgage of GBP250,000,” said Mr Moussavi, indicating that if he had recovered the payment from Pakistan at the time, he would have paid Mr Rose the commission.
Mr Rose said Mr Moussavi asked him to arrange the meeting. “I’ve known Shahzad for a long time too, so I agreed to do this. So far as I was concerned, I was just doing a favour for a friend, though twice Kaveh said he would pay me a commission if he concluded a settlement,” he wrote.
“At first I thought he was joking, but when he repeated the offer by text, I told him (verbally) I couldn’t accept this. I never asked for and never received any payment in relation to this meeting.”
Broadsheet was engaged by Gen Musharraf some 20 years ago to investigate the offshore property of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members.
