The Pandora Papers, which includes Pakistani ministers, businessmen, revealed the offshore holdings of 140 politicians, public offshore and sports stars.
Several Pakistan ministers, retired civil and military officials, businessmen as well as owners of top media outlets were named in it. Pandora Letter Following an investigation that uncovered financial secrets conducted by high-profile individuals, prompted Prime Minister Imran Khan to promise to investigate all citizens mentioned in the leaks.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday unveiled the “Pandora Papers”, according to which Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Water Resources Minister Moonis Elahi, Senator Faisal Wawada, Industry and Production Minister Khusro Bakhtiar’s family, among others, Had ties with offshore companies.
Read also: ‘Pandora Papers’: Key members of Pakistan PM’s inner circle among over 700 Pakistanis named in leak
According to The News newspaper, in addition to key members of Mr Khan’s cabinet, retired civil and military officials, businessmen as well as owners of the country’s top media outlets have companies and trusts holding millions of dollars in offshore jurisdictions.
The paper reported that the investigation, named as the Pandora Papers, revealed that retired military officers owned offshore companies or assets, including Lt Gen (retd) Muhammad Afzal Muzaffar’s son, Major General (retired) Nusrat Naeem, Lt Gen (Retd.) Retired) Khalid Maqbool, wife of Lieutenant-General (Retd) Tanveer Tahir, sister of Lieutenant-General (Retd) Ali Quli Khan, son of Air Chief Marshal Abbas Khattak and retired army officer and politician Raja Nadir Parvez.
Media owners holding offshore companies include Jung Group publisher Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, CEO Dawn Media Group Hamid Haroon, Express Media Group publisher Sultan Ahmed Lakhani, Gourmet Group, publisher of a TV channel GNN and Pakistan Today. are also. Late Arif Nizami.
Ali Dar, son of former finance minister Ishaq Dar, former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and former chairman Federal Bureau of Revenue and secretary finance Salman Siddiq’s son Yawar Salman, have companies in the tax haven.
Pandora Papers has also revealed that Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise owner Peshawar Zalmi and renowned industrialist Javed Afridi own three offshore companies in the BVI jurisdiction. Afridi is the beneficial owner of Old Trafford Properties Limited, Sutton Gas Works Properties Limited and Gas Works Properties Limited.
In a statement released late on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan hailed the Pandora Papers, which exposed the illicit wealth of elites amassed through tax evasion and corruption and looted financial ‘heavens’.
He said, “My government will investigate all our citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers and if any wrongdoing is found, we will take appropriate action. I call on the international community to treat this grave injustice as a climate change crisis.” “
He said that just as the East India Company plundered the wealth of India, the ruling elite of developing countries were also doing the same.
“Unfortunately, the rich states are neither interested in stopping this massive loot nor in returning this looted money,” Mr Khan said.
He said the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) calculated USD 7 trillion in stolen assets parked largely in offshore tax havens.
Mr Khan said his “over two decades of struggle is based on the belief that countries are not poor but that corruption causes poverty because money is diverted from investing in our people”.
This resource-stealing causes devaluation, leading to thousands of poverty-related deaths, he said, adding that if unchecked, the disparity between rich and poor states will increase as poverty increases in the latter.
“This in turn will lead to a flood of economic migration from poor to rich states, leading to economic and social instability around the world,” Mr Khan said.
Belonging to 150 media organizations spread across 117 countries, more than 600 journalists from around the world participated in two years of research for the Pandora Papers, which contains 11.9 million files containing 2.94 terabytes worth of confidential information.
Pakistani investigative reporter Umar Cheema, who was part of the investigation along with fellow journalist, Fakhar Durrani, shared the details with Geo News. Both the journalists are associated with The News newspaper owned by Jung Group, which also owns Geo News.
Giving details of the difficulties being faced in contacting the people named in the investigation, Mr. Cheema said that earlier written questions were sent. Some were contacted over phone, who would hang up if told about the investigation, some refused to give their email addresses, others were also contacted via WhatsApp.
It should be noted that setting up and declaring an offshore company that is not involved in any illegal practices is permitted by law.
Speaking about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Lahore residence, 2 Zaman Park, he said the ICIJ, the Washington DC-based non-profit newsroom and journalists network that conducted the investigation, sent questions to the Prime Minister’s spokesperson.
It took ICIJ nearly two years to organize the investigation involving more than 600 journalists in 117 countries, making it the largest journalism partnership ever. By comparison, for the Panama Papers, about 400 journalists from 80 countries participated in the investigation.
The Pandora Papers leak will reveal the financial secrets of more politicians and public officials than the Panama Papers and provide more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies, the report suggests.
NS Panama Papers They were based on data from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm that revealed the offshore holdings of 140 politicians, public offshore and sports stars. Those documents were obtained by the German newspaper, Sudeutsch Zeitung, which contained records from 40 years earlier.
The Pandora Papers investigation is larger in size and the revelations about politicians and public officials are far greater than those previously brought to public attention.
More than 400 people from Pakistan appeared in the Panama Papers, including family members of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
In July 2017, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Sharif, disqualifying him from office in the Panamagate scandal.
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