Documents obtained by the BBC showed the Bhutto government also agreed to pay Asian Voice Ltd, a company of which Mr Galloway was a director and one third shareholder, to publish a newspaper with pro-Pakistani views with funding received directly from the Benazir Bhutto government. According to a memorandum dated Jan 2, 1996 the Pakistan government proposed to "covertly sponsor" the publication, with money allocated to "the Secret Fund of the High Commissioner for Pakistan in the UK as a special grant for the project".
In early 1996 Mr Galloway recruited staff and an office was set up in Tooley Street near Tower Bridge in London. The paper was to be called East and, as agreed, the publisher was Asian Voice Ltd.
But just two weeks before the official launch disaster struck. The government of Ms Bhutto fell and with it went the source of funding. Mr Galloway now had a problem. Thousands of pounds had been sunk in launch costs and debts were running high. The new administration in Islamabad made it clear they wanted to stop the flow of money and the MP realised this could spell disaster.
In a memorandum marked "Secret" and dated Jan 26, 1997 there is an account of a meeting between the newly-appointed foreign secretary of Pakistan, Mr Galloway and Pakistan's former High Commissioner in London, the man who had covertly directed funds for the newspaper project. The memo reports that the foreign secretary made it clear that funding for the paper was to end but reassured Mr Galloway that the new president did not wish to harm the MP's position.
According to the memo, Mr Galloway thanked the president for his concern but outlined serious concerns. The memo states that Mr Galloway said that if East were to close before the general election then "his political enemies would create problems and might also call for journalistic investigation which could easily establish his involvement. Such a situation would not only ruin him politically but would also damage the Labour Party".
These are hardly the sentiments of a man comfortable with the nature of the funding for the paper. Two days after this meeting a cheque for £135,000 drawn in favour of Asian Voice Ltd was handed over to the MP. Newsnight obtained a copy of the cheque, which came with Mr Galloway's signature, apparently acknowledging receipt.
In total the documents in Pakistan suggested that more than £300,000 was paid to Asian Voice Ltd to run East. But this was not enough to stave off financial collapse. Soon Mr Galloway had to turn to Pakistan with his begging bowl. He was so desperate for money that he wrote a series of highly embarrassing begging letters to the new government, which raised serious questions about his judgment as an MP.
On May 8, 1997 Mr Galloway wrote to Mr Sharif talking of Labour's "landslide victory". The preamble over, he got to the point: "Alas I must draw your attention to a critical issue which risks gravely embarrassing Pakistan and Labour just on the threshold of the new era. As you will see from the file I undertook to keep "The East" going until the General Election to avoid the embarrassment of the paper's collapse. The Government of Pakistan - in the shape of the then Foreign Secretary - promised to pay the costs for February, March and April - totalling £150,000. None of these instalments arrived.
"Consequently I now face creditors to the tune of £141,000. Now that Parliament is back, they are literally coming through my door at Westminster demanding money.
"My dear Prime Minister, if these creditors are not paid they will take me to court on a winding-up petition. This level of debts cannot be quietly forgotten. Events thereafter would be disastrous for me - probably your best friend in the new Parliament - and would badly damage the reputation of Pakistan.
"I beg you, Sir, to please instruct the High Commission in London to honour the country's commitments. There are literally only days to spare."
On May 26, Mr Galloway once again wrote to Mr Sharif - this time on House of Commons headed paper. His tone was increasingly desperate.
"I beg you to grant me an audience with you, Sir, so we can resolve the matter," he wrote.
We showed these begging letters to parliamentarians, who expressed shock. We did not reveal who had written them to avoid them being accused of party bias - we merely said they were penned by an MP. Speaking in 1998, Shirley Williams told us: "He or she put themselves under a very strong obligation to a government which has a very clear mandate on how it wished to behave in the UK and how it wanted to be seen in the UK. And that was bound to influence the MP. The [Parliamentary] rules are inadequate to deal with this situation."
Before the broadcast of the BBC film in June 1998 Mr Galloway was asked for an interview. He declined. So the BBC wrote to him, asking the simple question of whether Asian Voice Ltd had ever received money from the government of Pakistan. He told them their information was factually wrong but refused to elaborate. In a letter he said: "Asian Voice Ltd had business relations with a variety of companies and governments in countries friendly to, or allied with, Great Britain. Those commercial relations were conducted on the basis of confidentiality and remain confidential."
He added that the suggestion that he had put himself under an obligation to the government of Pakistan was "preposterous" but the documents found disclosed an astonishingly close financial relationship with a foreign power - and one that had been covert.
In 1996 leaflets on behalf of a group called The National Lobby on Kashmir were issued at political rallies in Britain asking for donations to be sent to a PO Box number. The BBC found that the box number was connected with Mr Galloway's London address.
The former editor of East, who knew nothing about her paper's funding links with Pakistan, became suspicious in the run-up to the launch of the paper while she was working from Mr Galloway's house. Speaking in 1998 she said: "I was working closely with George's researcher and I was becoming aware of some of the work he was doing. There were lots of documents, lots of chequebooks, lots of accounts for the lobby work on Kashmir."
When searching through the documents in Islamabad the BBC came across references to the lobbying group in files held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Newsnight obtained a document, signed "George Galloway", acknowledging receipt of a cheque for £50,000 and £10,000 in cash on behalf of The National Lobby on Kashmir. The hand-written receipt stated that money was spent on leaflets, posters, an office, staff and "countless media opportunities".
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