In reaction to allegations of corruption and kickbacks, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday filed a Rs26 billion defamation lawsuit against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan.
Imran Khan had alleged that Javed Sadiq, a Canadian businessman of Pakistani origin and executive director of China State Construction Engineering Corporation, had been acting as front-man of CM Shehbaz and pocketed billions of rupees out of four contracts secured by him for some Chinese companies.
In a legal notice sent to Khan under section 8 of the defamation ordinance, 2002, Shehbaz Sharif “did not deny that one Javed Sadiq was a representative of some companies but added that one of the companies represented by him was a contender for the grant of the EPC contract for setting up of a 100 megawatt Solar Power Project at Bahawalpur by Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power (Pvt.) Limited owned by the Government of Punjab with a project cost of 131.5 million USD but the contract was not awarded to it and was instead awarded to another Chinese company, namely TBEA.”
