Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is accused of facilitating one of his relatives after an alleged conversation between the premier and a government official was leaked on Saturday.
An over a two-minute audio recording of Shehbaz Sharif's conversation was shared by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on his Twitter account yesterday, claiming that it shows the Prime Minister putting his family's business interests before those of the state.
In the clip, a voice -- said to be that of Shehbaz Sharif -- can be heard saying that Maryam Nawaz Sharif had asked him to facilitate her son-in-law Raheel for the import of machinery for a power plant from India.
"If we do so, we will get a lot of flak when this matter goes to the ECC and cabinet," the official can be heard saying in the audio clip, as per Dawn.
At this, Prime Minister's alleged voice can be heard saying: "The son-in-law is very dear to Maryam Nawaz. Tell her very logically about this and then I will talk to her."
The same voice also agrees with the perception that this would be bad for optics and may cause political trouble, according to the Dawn.
Notably, Maryam Nawaz's daughter Mehrunnisa married industrialist Chaudhry Munir's son Raheel in December 2015.
According to the publication, at the end of the audio clip, there is a mention of former Justice Maqbool Baqir, whose name was being considered as the next head of the National Accountability Bureau. The official is heard conveying to the premier the 'suggestion' of two media persons, asking him not to consider the former judge for the slot of NAB chairman, in view of their experience with former NAB chief Javed Iqbal, who was also a retired judge appointed by the PML-N government.
This exchange helps to put a timeline on the purported audio, as the matter of the NAB chief's appointment was in the news around two months ago, as per Dawn.
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