A huge tranche of leaked data on offshore companies that is larger in size and scope than the Panama Papers, hit the global headlines Sunday night, laying bare the financial secrets of the global rich and powerful, including Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet members, financiers, retired generals, media owners and businessmen.
The names of more than 700 Pakistanis have been discovered in the data and the majority of them are tax residents in this country. This trove of information has been named Pandora Papers and it adds significantly to what was discovered in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers. A veritable Pandora’s box of information has been opened, releasing unending trouble and woes for those named.The Pandora Papers have unmasked the fortunes of more than 330 public officials in 90 countries. Included among them are 35 current and former leaders of different countries. The king of Jordan, the rulers of Qatar and Dubai, presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Lebanon, and former British prime minister Tony Blair, all appear in the secret files.
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For Pakistan, the files pose a big test to the accountability credentials of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had found the Panama Papers a “God-sent” opportunity to burnish his credentials as an anti-corruption warrior. The names of some of his key team members and financiers have now surfaced in the Pandora Papers.
Included among them are Minister for Finance & Revenue Shaukat Fayyaz Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Chaudhry Moonis Elahi and Elahi’s predecessor Faisal Vawda, President of the National Bank of Pakistan Arif Usmani, PM’s ambassador at large for Foreign Investment Ali Jehangir Siddiqui, Managing Director of the National Investment Trust Adnan Afridi, among others. The family of Minister for Industries Khusro Bakhtyar and the son of Waqar Masood, the PM’s Special Assistant who recently resigned, have also surfaced in the Pandora Papers controversy.
The founder of the fallen equity firm Abraaj, Arif Masood Naqvi, Senior Minister of Punjab Abdul Aleem Khan and business tycoon Tariq Shafi are named in the data. From the Opposition, Ishaq Dar’s son and Sharjeel Memon have surfaced in the Pandora Papers. New leak provides more insight than Panama Papers
The documents were leaked to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which for nearly two years led an investigation collaborating with more than 600 journalists in 117 countries. This is the biggest journalism partnership in history, which involved 150 media organizations. For the Panama Papers, almost 400 journalists from 80 countries participated in the investigation. The News was the only ICIJ partner from Pakistan on both occasions. The Pandora Papers comprise 11.9 million documents whereas the Panama Papers had 11.5 million.
This new leak has uncovered the finances of more leaders and public officials than did the Panama Papers and provides more than twice the information about the ownership of offshore companies. In total, the new leaks uncover the real owners of more than 29,000 offshore companies from more than 200 countries with the largest contingents from Russia, UK, Argentina, China and Brazil. The highest number of companies linked with world leaders and other public officials were registered in the British Virgin Islands.While the US government has been condemning poor countries for providing sanctuaries to dirty money, the Pandora Papers reveal for the first time that the US has become an increasingly attractive destination for hidden wealth.
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