Abraaj co-founder ready to pay $20m for Nawaz’s cooperation K-Electric deal: WSJ
1 min read
ISLAMABAD: Private equity firm Abraaj’s co-founder offered to pay $20 million to a Pakistani businessman in the year 2016 to to secure cooperation of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the sale of firm’s sale of its stake in K-Electric, US based newspaper Wall Street Journal reported.
In a report documenting Abraaj’s fall, the newspaper reported earlier this week that in the year 2016, Abraaj was looking to sell its stake in K-Electric, the electricity provider to Karachi so the firm’s co-founder Arif Naqvi tried to secure the cooperation of then-prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and his brother Shehbaz, offering a $20 million payment to businessman Navaid Malik for his help.
The report cites an October 2015 email to Abraaj co-founder Arif Naqvi from partner Omar Lodhi in which Navaid Malik said that Shehbaz was “willing to give a strong endorsement” of the deal to Chinese bidders.
he report claims that when Naqvi emailed Lodhi about the $20 million contract for Navaid Malik in June 2016, he wrote, “This document is explosive in the wrong hands.” Abraaj and K-Electric shouldn’t be named in the document, he wrote: “Keep it generic.”
Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif and Abraaj co-founder Arif Naqvi have denied that they were involved in corruption.
About The Author
