ISLAMABAD : Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP) Sirajul Haq on Monday has moved an application in the Supreme Court (SC) seeking a probe against Pakistani nationals named in the Pandora Papers.
JI chief Sirajul Haq filed the miscellaneous application in the Panama leaks case, requesting the top court to investigate people who, according to the Pandora Papers, own offshore properties.
32 pages application has been moved through counsel Muhammad Ishtiaq Ahmed Raja Advocate stating that panama petition was filed by the petitioner, when International Consortium of Investigation Journalists (ICIJ) disclosed the establishment of offshore companies registered in Panama, whereby illegal public money was being transferred from different countries. A number of Pakistanis, who were also involved in this practice, were pointed out in those leaks, which were generally known and introduced as Panama Leaks’.
Application further states that the International Consortium of Investigation Journalists (ICIJ) was still investigating the matter of illegal transfer of funds through the said established companies and now the said ICII has once again published the list of those persons, who are involved in transferring of such public money.
That these information are now published in the name of ‘Pandora Papers’, wherein a number of different folk of Pakistani nationals are pointed out, who have established their companies, but have not declared the same in their assets provided in their public capacity to the concerned authorities, it said
Sirajul Haq has stated that this publishing of Pandora Papers is also a continuation of the Panama Leaks, wherein the similar factor of transfer of public money and by that public money, establishing of the offshore companies are involved, adding that the process of investigation in the matter is to be taken by the respondents, but yet neither the names of those persons already announced by the Pandora Papers are being acknowledged by the respondents nor any action is yet proposed by the respondents against the said persons.
Application further says that since the similar petition is also pending before this Honourable Court, therefore, the petitioner seeks the indulgence of this Honourable Court for a direction to the respondents for the purpose of inquiry/investigation.
It is, therefore, respectfully prayed that by allowing this petition, the names of the persons involved in transfer of public money, as mentioned in Pandora Papers may also be allowed to be brought on the file for the purpose of inquiry/investigation, JI chief said .
Meanwhile speaking to media outside the SC, Sirajul Haq said that as many as 700 Pakistani nationals featured in the Pandora Papers. “The entire Pakistani elite has been named in the Pandora Papers,” he said, demanding action be taken against them.
He lamented that the PTI government has clipped the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) wings and accused it of giving itself an NRO-like concession by promulgating the NAB amendment ordinance.
The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance, and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world’s rich and powerful, according to the International Consortium of Investigative (ICIJ) that worked on the project.
The ICIJ, a global network of 280 investigative journalists in more than 100 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories, said that a 2.94 terabyte data trove revealed “names of members of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s inner circle, high-rank former military officers, as well as renowned business and political personalities, own secret offshore assets”.
The investigation is based on a leak of confidential records of 14 offshore service providers that give professional services to wealthy individuals and corporations seeking to incorporate shell companies, trusts, foundations and other entities in low- or no-tax jurisdictions, said the ICIJ. “The entities enable owners to conceal their identities from the public and sometimes from regulators. Often, the providers help them open bank accounts in countries with light financial regulation.”
Over 700 Pakistanis named in ICIJ’s ‘Pandora Papers’.