In the wake of the Pandora Papers, an investigation that revealed financial secrets held by high-profile individuals worldwide announced the names of more than 700 Pakistanis, and politicians involved in the inquiry rushed to release explanations.
On Sunday, Pandora Papers revealed that many Pakistani politicians including Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Water Resources Minister Moonis Elahi, PTI Senator Faisal Vawda, Ishaq Dar’s son of PML-N, Sharjeel Memon of PPP, the family of the Minister of Industry and Manufacturing. Khusro Bakhtiar, and PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others have allegedly been in contact with overseas companies.
Shaukat Tarin-Clarification about his alleged offshore companies.
Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin took to Twitter to release details about his alleged offshore companies. “In 2014, Tariq bin Laden’s M E Developers LLC wanted to invest in Silk bank. They got a big deal from SBP and opened four overseas accounts to get a steady income,” wrote Tarin.
“Before anything happened, there was a state of law and order in Pakistan, and Bin Laden decided not to invest. No bank accounts have been opened, no transactions have taken place, and companies have been closed,” he wrote.
Responding to the investigation report, PTI’s Abdul Aleem Khan took to Twitter, saying he had nothing to hide as he had disclosed all his assets to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
“Alhamdulillah, nothing to hide. He wrote on Twitter that this company was announced on all my assets in FBR and the election commission 15 years ago,” he wrote on Twitter. Ali Dar Ishaq Dar’s son of PML-N also took to Twitter to share his responses to senior journalist Umar Cheema, who was part of the Pandora Papers investigative team.
“When Umar Cheema sent me an email regarding the Pandora Papers investigation, I had responded with a detailed account of the companies, which were completely legal and made for legal purposes. I have been based in the UAE since graduating,” he wrote. .Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the Pandora Papers and said his government would “investigate all our citizens mentioned in Pandora’s papers.”
“If anything is wrong, we will take appropriate action, and I urge the international community to address this injustice such as climate change.”
The Inquiry:
The International Consortium of Investigative (ICIJ) has received more than 11.9 million documents containing 2.94 terabytes of confidential information from service providers who have helped establish and manage overseas companies and promises of taxpayers worldwide.
The ICIJ shared the data with 150 media organizations
ICIJ shared information with 150 news organizations and led to extensive collaborations on journalism history. It took the ICIJ nearly two years to organize an investigation involving more than 600 journalists in 117 countries, making it the largest journalistic partnership.
Countries participated in the investigation.
By comparison, in the Panama Papers, about 400 journalists from 80 countries participated in the survey. The news was Pakistan’s only ICIJ partner in both cases. In addition, The News also partnered with ICIJ in rewarding the Bahamas and Paradise Papers.
The ownership of offshore companies.
Pandora’s papers reward the disclosure of financial secrets of more leaders and public officials than the Panama Papers did and provide more than double the details of the ownership of overseas companies.
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