After Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) decided to initiate a money-laundering case against TikTok star Hareem Shah, a British-Pakistani businessman and former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) candidate for the 2018 elections has stepped up to defend her.

Shah has lately been criticized for posting a video on social media in which she was seen displaying stacks of British pounds. She said in the video that she had successfully transported a large sum of money from Pakistan to the UK in violation of the law

Former PTI leader Daniyal Malik came to Shah’s defence on Thursday, stating, “the bundles of cash in UK sterling pounds that Hareem Shah [flaunted] in her social media video belonged to me and there was no money-laundering of any type.”

In an interview Hareem Shah’s cousin Malik stated that the thousands of pounds seen in the video were real and clean, and that he had given the money to Hareem solely for the purpose of making a “fun video.”

In the 2018 elections, Malik ran for PTI NA 68 Gujarat against Hussain Elahi and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali on the PTI ticket. After losing the election, he went to the United Kingdom to operate his marketing and money-transfer company.

Standing alongside Shah, Malik said the money came from his “legitimate business” and that it had been “deposited in the bank with receipts and all legal formalities” since then.

Malik, who owns a real estate and money exchange business in Leytonstone, East London, asked Pakistan’s government to apprehend the genuine money launderers.

Malik said: “I have stood as PTI’s candidate and fought hard for the ideal of the party. I am a Sadiq and Ameen and everyone knows that in Gujrat and I need no introduction. This was my business money. Hareem is like my baby sister. She was visiting me and saw the cash in my hands which I was going to deposit in the bank. She asked me if she could make a video and I said that’s fine. That’s the whole story. It’s impossible to get such a large amount scanned through at the airports.”

Malik added that he has “felt let down by the PTI government for failing to deliver the promises it made.”

Malik added,  “I had raised the issue on record when I was asked by two party leaders to pay bribes and I refused. I have met Imran Khan and donated money but things have changed now.”

Malik stated that he will back Shah at every forum. He urged Federal Minister Sheikh Rasheed and others to pursue “genuine lawbreakers” rather than pursuing Shah only because she had criticised the government’s poor performance.

The TikTok star was shown sitting down with two piles of British pounds in the original video. The social media celebrity proudly displayed the cash, claiming that it was the first time she had brought such a large sum of money from Pakistan to London.

People feel “sorry” when their rupees are turned into euros or dollars, Shah remarked, lamenting the recent decline of the Pakistani currency.

“The government had promised to increase the [value] of the currency, increase the [value] of the [Pakistani] passport, but they didn’t do anything. They could only talk,” she had said.

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