Ishaq Dar exposed during BBC HardTalk interview

Pakistan’s former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was exposed when he failed to answer some tough questions during his BBC HardTalk interview with British host Stephen Sackur.

Ishaq Dar was presented with a series of tough question and the former minister tried his level best to shake them off but failed miserably at all his attempts to do so as the interview did not give him any leeway.

Stephen Sackur presented questions on a number of topics, including Dar’s stay in the United Kingdom (UK), his medical treatment, number of properties but the former minister failed to clearly answer any question and even when he did, his own statements conflicted one another at times.

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Lets start off with the question about his properties. Dar told BBC interviewer that his record was clean according to his tax returns but host Stephen Sackur did not hold back and his asked straight up about the number of properties the former minister and his family had to their name.

“It’s all declared in my tax returns,” replied Dar. “I have my main residence in Pakistan which has been taken over by this (PTI) regime. I haven’t got too many properties.”

However, the interviewer kept pushing to which Ishaq Dar said that he and his only owned “one” property in Pakistan. Stephen Sackur wasn’t going to let this slide and brought up a Dubai villa owned by his sons.

Ishaq Dar, who seemed on edge by this point told the host that his sons had been in business for the past 17 years and they owned the Dubai property but they were adults and completely independent of him.

BBC HardTalk interviewer asked Ishaq Dar that it was matter was so clear cut, why wasn’t he going back to Pakistan and make his case before a court in order to clear his name.

“Well the court of law […] my lawyers were there, I’m here for medical treatment, I have cervical issue,” he replied, adding that he was still suffering from illness and had been living in Britain for almost three years for medical treatment.

“And you couldn’t possibly get back to Pakistan?” Sackur asked.

Dar at this point started blaming the matter on “human rights abuses in Pakistan” saying that dozens of people under the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had been virtually killed.

Sackur asked if Dar was staying in the UK to “escape the judicial process” to which he replied that he had every evidence to disprove the allegations but the “corruption rhetoric” was being used to suppress the civilian leadership in the country.

“The corruption rhetoric has been used in the last few dictatorships and the current one isn’t different because this regime is known to be under a covert coup or a judicial martial law. I can prove that there’s nothing against me,” Ishaq Dar told the HardTalk interviewer.

Talking about the allegations of electoral fraud, the show’s anchor corrected Ishaq Dar and said that European Union (EU) observers had declared the election results credible.

Social media has been trending in Pakistan with hashtags #IshaqDar, #HardTalk and #StephenSacker.

“My interview with former Finance Minister @MIshaqDar50 seems to be causing quite a stir in #Pakistan.” said Stephen Sackur in a tweet after the Hard Talk show.

Complete Interview – Ishaq Dar on BBC HardTalk

Twitter Reactions

Social media wasn’t late and memes started pouring in after the interview.

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