Panama papers and Pakistan

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, which belonged to the Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source, some dating back to the 1970s. "John Doe", the whistleblower who leaked the documents to German journalist Bastian Obermayer from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), remains anonymous, even to the journalists on the investigation. "My life is in danger", he told them. In a May 6 statement, John Doe cited income inequality as the reason for his action, and said he leaked the documents "simply because I understood enough about their contents to realise the scale of the injustices they described". He added that he has never worked for any government or intelligence agency. He expressed willingness to help prosecutors if immune to prosecution. After SZ verified that the statement did come from the Panama Papers source, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) posted the full document on its website.

Because of the amount of data, SZ asked the ICIJ for help. Journalists from 107 media organizations in 80 countries analyzed documents detailing the operations of the law firm. After more than a year of analysis, the first news stories were published on April 3, 2016, along with 150 of the documents themselves. The project represents an important milestone in the use of data journalism software tools and mobile collaboration.

Pakistani Politicians in Panama Leaks:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is linked to 9 companies connected to his family name. Those involved are:

Hassan Nawaz

Hussain Nawaz

Maryam Nawaz

Relatives of Punjab Chief Minister and brother of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif are linked to 7 companies. They are:

Samina Durrani

Ilyas Mehraj

Now deceased former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was linked to one company. However relatives and associates are linked to others:

Nephew Hassan Ali Jaffery

Javed Pasha, Close friend of Asif Ali Zardari (4 companies)

PPP Senator Rehman Malik (1 company)

PPP Senator Osman Saifullah’s family (34 companies)

Anwar Saifullah

Salim Saifullah

Humayun Saifullah

Iqbal Saifullah

Javed Saifullah

Jehangir Saifullah

The Chaudharies of Gujrat have not been linked personally but other relatives have including:

Waseem Gulzar

Zain Sukhera (co-accused with former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s son in the Hajj scandal)

Pakistani Businessmen in Panama Leaks:

Real Estate Czar Malik Riaz Hussain’s son (Bahria Town)

Ahmad Ali Riaz (1 company)

Chairman ABM Group of Companies Azam Sultan (5 companies)

Pizza Hut owner Aqeel Hussain and family (1 company)

Brother Tanwir Hassan

Chairman Soorty Enterprise Abdul Rashid Soorty and family

Sultan Ali Allana, Chairman of Habib Bank Limited (1 company)

Khawaja Iqbal Hassan, former NIB bank President (1 company)

Bashir Ahmed and Javed Shakoor of Buxly Paints (1 company)

Mehmood Ahmed of Berger Paints (1 company)

Hotel tycoon Sadruddin Hashwani and family (3 companies)

Murtaza Haswani

Owner of Hilton Pharma, Shehbaz Yasin Malik and family (1 company)

The Hussain Dawood family (2 companies)

Shahzada Dawood

Abdul Samad Dawood

Partner Saad Raja

The Abdullah family of Sapphire Textiles (5 companies)

Yousuf Abdullah and his wife

Muhammad Abdullah and his wife

Shahid Abdullah and his family

Nadeem Abdullah and family

Amer Abdullah and family

Gul Muhammad Tabba of Lucky Textiles

Shahid Nazir, CEO of Masood Textile Mills (1 company)

Partner Naziya Nazir

Zulfiqar Ali Lakhani, from Lakson Group and owner of Colgate-Palmolive, Tetley Clover and Clover Pakistan (1 company)

Zulfiqar Paracha and family of Universal Corporation (1 company)

Pakistani Judges in Panama Leaks:

Serving Lahore High Court Judge Justice Farrukh Irfan

Retired Judge Malik Qayyum

Pakistani Media personnel in Panama Leaks:

Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman of GEO and Jang Group (1 company)

The leaks in April 2016 revealed that three of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his family's wealth statement.

The companies identified so far include three British Virgin Islands-based companies Nescoll Ltd, Nielsen Enterprises Ltd and Hangon Property Holdings Ltd, incorporated in 1993, 1994 and 2007 respectively.

These companies have been used to channel funds to acquire foreign assets, including some apartments along Park Lane in London's Mayfair area.

The insinuation that the companies were meant to hide or launder ill-gotten wealth or to avoid taxes called his credentials into question.

Mr Sharif and his family have denied wrongdoing. In November, they told the Supreme Court that their London property was bought through investments in companies owned by the Qatari ruling family.

The prime minister has called the leaks the work of people "targeting me and my family for their political aims". In an address to the nation on 5 April 2016, he said those "who use ill-gotten wealth don't keep assets in their own names".

Initially, however, the leaks appeared to trigger panic in the top circles of the ruling PML-N party. The pressure was believed to be the reason behind Mr Sharif's unscheduled departure for London on 13 April 2016 to keep a rare appointment with his doctors.

The Panama Papers case (officially titled Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi v. Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) or the Panamagate case is an ongoing case before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Panama Papers leak uncovered links between Sharif's family and eight offshore companies.

PTI chairman Imran Khan filed a petition through counsel Naeem Bokhari with the Supreme Court on 29 August 2016, seeking Sharif's disqualification as Prime Minister and as a Member of the National Assembly. The petition also moved against Sharif's children, son-in-law Muhammad Safdar, and in-law and incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Heard between 1 November 2016 and 23 February 2017. The case was brought to court by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan alleging money laundering, corruption, and contradictory statements by Nawaz Sharif, the incumbent Prime Minister of Pakistan, after the 

The Court reserved its judgment on 23 February 2017. The case has been described as the most publicized in Pakistan's history, as well as a "defining moment" for the country.

The Court announced on 20 April 2017 that a Joint Investigation Team has to be formed to probe the Sharif family's involvement in corruption as stated in the Panama leaks.

The special bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsen issued the order while hearing into the implementation of the Panama Papers verdict case.

According to the orders of the court, the six-member team will be headed by Additional Director FIA Wajid Zia.

The members of the JIT include Brigadier Kamran Khursheed from the Military Intelligence (MI), Amir Aziz from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Bilal Rasool, an executive director at the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Irfan Naeem Mangi, Director at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and Muhammad Nauman Saeed form the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

The bench had rejected the nominations by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for JIT.

Order states, “the Secretariat of the JIT shall be housed in the Building of the Federal Judicial Academy, Islamabad where they shall be provided adequate office accommodation and related facilities.

The Federal Government is directed to provide Rs 20 million initial funds forthwith so that the JIT may not feel handicapped in its movement in any direction.

The JIT will have the power to engage and associate local/foreign experts to facilitate the investigation and collection of evidence in line with the letter and spirit of order dated 20.04.2017 of this Court.

The special bench also directed the Secretary Interior to ensure necessary security arrangements for the Secretariat and the Members of the JIT.

The JIT has been directed to commence and complete the investigation and submit its final report in terms of the order dated 20.04.2017. It shall also submit fortnightly progress reports as stipulated in the said order.

The hearing was adjourned and the further proceedings to come up on May 22.

Qatar's Prince Hammad Bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani invited members of Panama’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to his “Sheikh Palace” for answering questions pertaining to his family business' partnership with late Mian Muhammad Sharif.

Prince Hammad was responding to JIT’s July 4 letter where investigators requested him to consider the verification and investigation of his previous letters important for Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Hassan Nawaz Sharif via facsimile transmission or email which may be followed up by couriering signed originals.

“Qatari Prince [Hammad bin Jassim] also asked for names of the JIT members and dates of their visit,” a close friend of Hussain Nawaz Sharif told this correspondent by quoting content of the letter JIT received on Friday. Earlier this week, JIT wrote to Prince Hammad that he has already formally and irrevocably accepted and submitted to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and concomitantly the jurisdiction of the JIT.

Al-Thani has also answered the letter by the JIT and the same will likely to be clubbed with JIT final report to be presented before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The JIT members have been given the authority to engage and associate local and/or foreign experts to facilitate the investigation of Sharif family's offshore assets. The team also has been given all powers granted by laws relating to investigation, including those available in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999 and the Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1975. The directives also say that since the JIT, in essence and substance, is acting on the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, all executive authorities across Pakistan must assist and cooperate with the team.

 "Pakistani Nation role here is like a cricket match watchers"