PTI letter ‘defamatory and false’, says Sehgal

ISLAMABAD: In response to a letter sent by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson to the interior minister, Ikram Sehgal has said the majority shareholders of Wackenhut Pakistan and Security and Management Services (SMS) have reacted very strongly to what they term a ‘defamatory and outrageous’ claim. The PTI spokesperson, in the letter, claimed foreign security companies were operating in Pakistan while posing as local companies under some internal arrangement and sought an explanation from the government on the matter. A report on the letter was published in The Express Tribune on February 7, 2014. Sehgal – who is a majority shareholder of both the security companies – said this claim was ‘blatantly false’. He said the shares bought back from G4S were in Pakistan only and not worldwide as the PTI spokesperson maintained. Sehgal also said that the ‘insiders’ who the PTI spokesperson cited as sources in the letter were in actuality “motivated interests who cannot compete with his companies and have repeatedly used this bogey to smear their reputation”. Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th, 2014.