New Delhi: After a global journalism investigation revealed the names of several influential Pakistanis, including ministers, who allegedly conducted offshore transactions to dodge tax authorities, Pakistan on Monday announced that it had set up a “high-level” probe into the Pandora Papers exposé.
On Sunday night, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its media partners released a two-year-long investigation, dubbed ‘Pandora Papers’, into 11.9 million files leaked from the records of 14 offshore service companies.
The ‘Pandora Papers’ found that several ministers in Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet, including finance minister Shaukat Tarin, had dealings with offshore companies. The list also included names like a critical political ally, minister for water resources Moonis Elahi, and the family of minister of industries and production Khusro Bakhtiar.
In addition, retired military officers and heads of Pakistani media houses were also involved in setting up offshore companies, the investigation revealed.
“The prime minister has set up a high-level cell under the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission to investigate the Pandora leaks, which will present the facts before the nation,” information minister Fawad Chaudhary said.
In total, more than 700 Pakistani nationals were discovered in the leaked data, with the majority being tax residents in the country.
Pakistani paper The News, a media partner of the ICIJ, reported that the Pakistani prime minister had held a meeting to discuss the massive leak of financial data with senior party leaders and federal ministers.
Citing sources, the paper said that an initial report related to the matter was presented to Khan. The participants of the meeting briefed him on the actions that are being considered against the Pakistanis named in the Pandora Papers leak.
It added that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other bodies had been tasked to probe the matter, with the prime minister instructing to present the facts of the investigation before the nation.
The report said that the probe by the three-member cell would also go into whether the named individuals paid appropriate taxes. “It was also reported that the cell will see if these people paid taxes or not. “The cell will look into whether the sources of income of these individuals were legitimate, while it will also investigate whether these individuals have declared assets, whether money laundering has taken place or not,” an unnamed official told The News.
The exposé has political consequences as Khan had come to power on an anti-corruption platform. The revelations of the ‘Panama Papers’, five years ago, had been one of the key boosters of Khan’s rise to power as it had initiated the downfall of his political rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
