PM Imran says govt will investigate all citizens mentioned in Pandora Papers

Shortly after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday unveiled “Pandora Papers” — a major international research into the financial secrets held by high-profile individuals around the world — Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government would investigate all citizens mentioned in the report.

Among those named as holding foreign assets are Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, his family, and the son of Prime Minister Imran's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan.

If unchecked, inequalities between rich & poor states will increase as poverty rises in the latter. This in turn will lead to a flood of economic migration from the poor to the rich states, causing further economic & social instability across the globe.

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 3, 2021

The documents contain no suggestion that Imran Khan himself owns offshore companies, said ICIJ.

"We welcome the Pandora Papers exposing the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion & corruption & laundered out to financial 'havens'," PM Imran tweeted. "The UN SG's Panel FACTI [International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity] calculated a staggering $7 trillion in stolen assets parked in largely offshore tax havens."

 "My government will investigate all our citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers and if any wrongdoing is established we will take appropriate action. I call on the international community to treat this grave injustice as similar to the climate change crisis."

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Faisal Vawda, Shaukat Tarin among over 700 Pakistanis named in Pandora Papers leaks

The Pandora Papers, an investigation uncovering financial secrets held by high-profile individuals across the world, includes the names of more than 700 Pakistanis, it emerged on Sunday.

Most prominently these include Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, Senator Faisal Vawda, Ishaq Dar’s son, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others, with alleged links to offshore companies.

Some retired army officials, businessmen — including Axact’s CEO Shoaib Sheikh — and media company owners, have also been named in the leaks.

The publication also named Senator Faisal Vawda, Ishaq Dar’s son, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others, among those with alleged links to offshore companies.

The ICIJ released a report on the Pandora Papers titled "Prime Minister Imran Khan promised ‘new Pakistan’ but members of his inner circle secretly moved millions offshore."

According to the report, leaked documents revealed that "key members" of Prime Minister Imran's inner circle, including cabinet ministers, their families and major financial backers "have secretly owned an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth".

"Military leaders have been implicated as well," it said, clarifying that the documents contained "no suggestion" that Imran himself owned offshore companies.

Among those named as holding foreign assets are Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, his family, and the son of Prime Minister Imran's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan.

"The records also reveal the offshore dealings of a top PTI donor, Arif Naqvi, who is facing fraud charges in the United States," the ICIJ said.

According to the investigation's findings, Finance Minister Tarin and his family members own four offshore companies. It quoted Tariq Fawad Malik, a financial consultant who handled the paperwork for the companies, as saying that they were set up as part of the Tarin family’s intended investment in a bank with a Saudi business.

“As a mandatory prerequisite by [the] regulator, we engaged with the Central Bank of Pakistan to obtain their ’in-principle’ approval for the said strategic investment,” Malik said. The deal did not proceed.

Tarin didn’t respond to ICIJ’s questions, but in a statement issued today, he said: “The off-shore companies mentioned were incorporated as part of the fund raising process for my Bank.”

The files show how PML-Q leader Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, "a key political ally of Imran Khan’s, planned to put the proceeds from an allegedly corrupt business deal into a secret trust, concealing them from Pakistan’s tax authorities", according to the consortium.

A family spokesman for the Elahi family told ICIJ’s media partners that, “due to political victimisation misleading interpretations and data have been circulated in files for nefarious reasons.” He maintained that the family’s assets “are declared as per applicable law”.

The investigation also revealed that "a luxury London apartment was transferred from the son of a famous Indian movie director to the wife of a three-star general". This was "one of several offshore holdings involving military leaders and their families", the ICIJ said.

The general told ICIJ the property purchase was disclosed and proper; his wife did not reply.

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PM Imran says govt will investigate all citizens mentioned in Pandora Papers

Shortly after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday unveiled “Pandora Papers” — a major international research into the financial secrets held by high-profile individuals around the world — Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government would investigate all citizens mentioned in the report.

Among those named as holding foreign assets are Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, his family, and the son of Prime Minister Imran's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan.

If unchecked, inequalities between rich & poor states will increase as poverty rises in the latter. This in turn will lead to a flood of economic migration from the poor to the rich states, causing further economic & social instability across the globe.

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 3, 2021

The documents contain no suggestion that Imran Khan himself owns offshore companies, said ICIJ.

"We welcome the Pandora Papers exposing the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion & corruption & laundered out to financial 'havens'," PM Imran tweeted. "The UN SG's Panel FACTI [International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity] calculated a staggering $7 trillion in stolen assets parked in largely offshore tax havens."

 "My government will investigate all our citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers and if any wrongdoing is established we will take appropriate action. I call on the international community to treat this grave injustice as similar to the climate change crisis."

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Faisal Vawda, Shaukat Tarin among over 700 Pakistanis named in Pandora Papers leaks

The Pandora Papers, an investigation uncovering financial secrets held by high-profile individuals across the world, includes the names of more than 700 Pakistanis, it emerged on Sunday.

Most prominently these include Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, Senator Faisal Vawda, Ishaq Dar’s son, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others, with alleged links to offshore companies.

Some retired army officials, businessmen — including Axact’s CEO Shoaib Sheikh — and media company owners, have also been named in the leaks.

The publication also named Senator Faisal Vawda, Ishaq Dar’s son, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others, among those with alleged links to offshore companies.

The ICIJ released a report on the Pandora Papers titled "Prime Minister Imran Khan promised ‘new Pakistan’ but members of his inner circle secretly moved millions offshore."

According to the report, leaked documents revealed that "key members" of Prime Minister Imran's inner circle, including cabinet ministers, their families and major financial backers "have secretly owned an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth".

"Military leaders have been implicated as well," it said, clarifying that the documents contained "no suggestion" that Imran himself owned offshore companies.

Among those named as holding foreign assets are Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, his family, and the son of Prime Minister Imran's former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan.

"The records also reveal the offshore dealings of a top PTI donor, Arif Naqvi, who is facing fraud charges in the United States," the ICIJ said.

According to the investigation's findings, Finance Minister Tarin and his family members own four offshore companies. It quoted Tariq Fawad Malik, a financial consultant who handled the paperwork for the companies, as saying that they were set up as part of the Tarin family’s intended investment in a bank with a Saudi business.

“As a mandatory prerequisite by [the] regulator, we engaged with the Central Bank of Pakistan to obtain their ’in-principle’ approval for the said strategic investment,” Malik said. The deal did not proceed.

Tarin didn’t respond to ICIJ’s questions, but in a statement issued today, he said: “The off-shore companies mentioned were incorporated as part of the fund raising process for my Bank.”

The files show how PML-Q leader Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, "a key political ally of Imran Khan’s, planned to put the proceeds from an allegedly corrupt business deal into a secret trust, concealing them from Pakistan’s tax authorities", according to the consortium.

A family spokesman for the Elahi family told ICIJ’s media partners that, “due to political victimisation misleading interpretations and data have been circulated in files for nefarious reasons.” He maintained that the family’s assets “are declared as per applicable law”.

The investigation also revealed that "a luxury London apartment was transferred from the son of a famous Indian movie director to the wife of a three-star general". This was "one of several offshore holdings involving military leaders and their families", the ICIJ said.

The general told ICIJ the property purchase was disclosed and proper; his wife did not reply.

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Pandora Papers will open new avenues for transparency: Fawad

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry expressed the hope that the Pandora Papers investigation will discourage corruption and open up more avenues for transparency.

The world waits in anticipation as the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), has received more than 11.9 million documents containing 2.94 terabytes of confidential information from service providers who helped set up and manage offshore companies and trusts in tax havens around the world.

According to the ICIJ, the exposé will be out today at 4:30pm GMT, which means 9:30pm Pakistan Standard Time.

"The Panama Papers [investigation] brought to light various assets stashed abroad by a lot of corrupt people," tweeted Fawad Chaudhry.

"Now, it is being said that another investigation led by the ICIJ is being released soon. Imran Khan has always pressed developed countries to discourage the practice of transferring looted money from poor countries to the developed ones," he said.

 "If Pandora Leaks confirms the transfer of looted money from third-world countries to others, then it will further validate Prime Minister Imran Khan's stance," he tweeted.

"We hope this investigation will also open up new avenues of transparency and will prove to be another setback for corruption."

 The ICIJ shared the data with 150 media organisations and has led the broadest collaboration in journalism history. It took the ICIJ almost two years to organise this investigation that involved more than 600 journalists in 117 countries, making it the biggest-ever journalism partnership.

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. In addition, The News also partnered with the ICIJ in the Bahamas leak and the Paradise Papers.

This leak has uncovered the finances of more leaders and public officials than the Panama Papers did and provided more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies. The Panama Papers were based on the data of a Panama-based law firm called Mossack Fonseca that revealed offshore holdings of 140 politicians, public offshore and sports stars.

Those documents were obtained by the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, which contained records dating back 40 years.

The Pandora Papers are bigger in size and revelations about politicians and public officials are also more than what previously came to public attention. From Pakistan, there were more than 400 individuals who surfaced in the Panama Papers. The number of Pakistanis in Pandora Papers is way more than that, say reports. Many interesting names would make headlines.

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Blast kills at least two civilians near Kabul mosque

An explosion outside a mosque in the Afghan capital killed at least two people on Sunday, senior Taliban officials said.

The blast struck near the entrance of the large Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter, adding that “a number of civilians” died.

A spokesman from the interior ministry, Qari Sayed Khosti, told AFP: “Our initial information shows two civilians were killed and three wounded in the blast.”

A prayer ceremony for Mujahid's mother, who died last week, was being held at the mosque on Sunday afternoon, the spokesman had written on social media on Saturday, adding “all people and friends are invited to attend.”

Ahmadullah, a shopkeeper nearby, told AFP: “I heard the sound of an explosion near the Eid Gah Mosque followed by guns firing.

“Just ahead of the blast the Taliban had blocked the road to hold a prayer ceremony for Zabihullah Mujahid's mother in the Eid Gah Mosque.”

Ambulances carrying the wounded were seen rushing towards Kabul's Emergency Hospital in the Shahr-e Naw area. The hospital said on Twitter that four patients were being treated.

Medical staff waited outside, AFP journalists saw, as people arrived in blood-stained clothes.

The area around the mosque was cordoned off by the Taliban who maintained a heavy security presence.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, attacks by the militant Daesh against them have increased. The rise has raised the possibility of a wider conflict between the two hardline groups.

Daesh maintains a strong presence in the eastern province of Nangarhar and considers the Taliban an enemy. It has claimed several attacks against them, including several killings in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.

Attacks in Kabul have so far been rare, but in recent weeks Daesh has shown signs it is expanding its footprint beyond the east and closer toward the capital. On Friday, Taliban fighters raided an IS hideout just north of Kabul in Parwan province. The raid came after an IS roadside bomb wounded four Taliban fighters in the area.

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Fire damages Rome's historic 19th century 'Iron Bridge'

A huge fire on Saturday night severely damaged Rome's famed "Iron Bridge", with parts of the 19th-century structure plunging into the Tiber River.

The bridge, which was opened in 1863 and whose formal name is Ponte dell' Industria (Industry Bridge), connects the densely populated Ostiense and Portuense neighbourhoods.

Pope Pius IX attended the 1863 inauguration of the bridge, one of the last major construction works in Rome in the waning years of the papal state controlling the city, which would soon become the capital of unified Italy.

The fire broke out on the eve of elections for the next mayor, in which the main issue has been the general decay of infrastructure and public services in the Italian capital.

Romans call the 131-metre long bridge "Ponte di Ferro" (Iron Bridge), since most of Rome's other bridges are made of stone.

Officials said there were no injuries from the fire, which was visible from afar as flames shot into the night sky.

Media reports said it may have been started by a short circuit in shacks below the bridge. Firefighters said the blaze, which was put out during the night, was fuelled by a damaged gas pipe.

Surrounding areas were left without electricity for several hours.

The bridge, used for busy road traffic between the two neighbourhoods, was closed indefinitely pending checks on its safety.

A plaque at the bridge pays tribute to 10 women who were executed on it in 1944 by German SS troops occupying Rome during the latter years of World War II. The women were punished for having occupied a bakery to feed their families in the city where war made food scarce.

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