PM Imran forms high-level cell to probe Pandora Papers' revelations

Prime Minister Imran Khan has formed a special, high-level cell to probe the Pandora Papers exposé, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said Monday, hours after the two-year investigation came to light.

A huge tranche of leaked data on offshore companies — 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.

The investigation revealed that the prime minister's cabinet members, financiers, retired generals, media owners, and businessmen have offshore companies.

"The prime minister has set up a high-level cell under the Prime Minister's Inspection Commission to investigate the Pandora leaks, which will present the facts before the nation," the information minister said.

The development comes after PM Imran Khan held a meeting to discuss the leaks and the overall country's political situation, with senior PTI leaders and federal ministers in attendance, sources said.

An initial report related to the matter was presented to the premier after which the participants of the meeting briefed him on the actions that are being considered against the Pakistanis named in the Pandora Papers leak, sources said.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other bodies have been tasked to probe the matter, sources said, with the prime minister instructing to present the facts of the investigation before the nation.

The names of more than 700 Pakistanis have been discovered in the data and the majority of them are tax residents in the country. A veritable Pandora’s box of information has been opened, releasing unending trouble and woes for those named.

The Pandora Papers had revealed that several Pakistani politicians — including Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, PTI's Senator Faisal Vawda, son of PML-N's Ishaq Dar, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, and PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others — have alleged links to offshore companies.

The probe has 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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PM Imran forms high-level cell to probe Pandora Papers' revelations

Prime Minister Imran Khan has formed a special, high-level cell to probe the Pandora Papers exposé, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said Monday, hours after the two-year investigation came to light.

A huge tranche of leaked data on offshore companies — 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.

The investigation revealed that the prime minister's cabinet members, financiers, retired generals, media owners, and businessmen have offshore companies.

"The prime minister has set up a high-level cell under the Prime Minister's Inspection Commission to investigate the Pandora leaks, which will present the facts before the nation," the information minister said.

The development comes after PM Imran Khan held a meeting to discuss the leaks and the overall country's political situation, with senior PTI leaders and federal ministers in attendance, sources said.

An initial report related to the matter was presented to the premier after which the participants of the meeting briefed him on the actions that are being considered against the Pakistanis named in the Pandora Papers leak, sources said.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other bodies have been tasked to probe the matter, sources said, with the prime minister instructing to present the facts of the investigation before the nation.

The names of more than 700 Pakistanis have been discovered in the data and the majority of them are tax residents in the country. A veritable Pandora’s box of information has been opened, releasing unending trouble and woes for those named.

The Pandora Papers had revealed that several Pakistani politicians — including Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, PTI's Senator Faisal Vawda, son of PML-N's Ishaq Dar, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar, and PTI leader Abdul Aleem Khan, among others — have alleged links to offshore companies.

The probe has 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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T20 World Cup: All tickets of Pak vs India match sell out

The tickets for the T20 World Cup’s Pakistan versus India match in Dubai have completely sold out just hours after the sale was launched on the Platinumlist website.

The much-awaited match is scheduled for October 24 at the Dubai International Stadium.

As soon as the International Cricket Council announced that the sale was on, the website was flooded with thousands of cricket enthusiasts who logged on to book the seats. Tens of thousands of them were even placed in an online queue that had to wait for hours for their turn as numerous others were already ahead of them.

The publication stated that the tickets for the Premium and Platinum category seats were available on the website for AED1500 and AED2600, respectively, till Sunday night but both became unavailable by Monday morning.

As of now, the Platinumlist website is showing the seats in all sections — including the General, General East, Premium, Pavilion East, and Platinum — as “unavailable” for one of the most anticipated matches.

The T20 World Cup is set to start on October 17 in Muscat and will conclude on November 14 in the UAE.

The ICC said Sunday that “all venues in the UAE will be operating at approximately 70% of the maximum seated capacity in the upcoming international event” under the coronavirus Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

The schedule offers a host of key rivalry fixtures and mouth-watering match-ups. The tournament kicks off with the Round 1 match between Oman and Papua New Guinea in Muscat.

Australia and South Africa will play the first match of Super 12s on October 23 in Abu Dhabi, followed by the replay of the 2016 final between England and West Indies also on October 23 in Dubai.

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WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram down for users across globe

Social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for thousands of users on Monday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

Users also reported issues with Facebook’s online messaging service Messenger.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outages might be affecting a larger number of users.

Downdetector showed that WhatsApp outage was reported at 8:23pm (Pakistan Standard Time) and it shot up to 1,082 complaints by 8:38pm.

According to Downdetector, the Instagram outage was reported first at 7:59pm, while Facebook went down almost around the same time.

The reason for the outage remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Facebook is yet to comment on the outage.

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Swedish cartoonist who drew blasphemous sketches of Prophet Muhammad killed in car crash

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who stirred worldwide controversy in 2007 with blasphemous sketches of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was killed in a car crash near the southern town of Markaryd on Sunday, police said.

Vilks, 75, who had been living under police protection since the drawings were published, was travelling in a police vehicle that collided with a truck. Two police officers were also killed.

"This is a very tragic incident. It is now important to all of us that we do everything we can to investigate what happened and what caused the collision," Swedish police said in a statement on Monday.

"Initially, there is nothing that points to anyone else being involved."

Since the publication of the cartoons, Vilks had been living under round-the-clock police guard following threats against his life. He had a bounty put on his head and his house was fire-bombed.

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Offshore companies had SBP's approval, were created to attract foreign investment: Tarin

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Sunday said the offshore companies of his and his family named in the Pandora Papers were opened with the approval of the State Bank of Pakistan at a time when he was trying to attract the investment of a foreign group for his bank.

Tarin's clarification came shortly after his name was mentioned in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' (ICIJ) Pandora Papers — a major international research into the financial secrets held by high-profile individuals around the world.

According to the investigation's findings, Tarin and his family members own four offshore companies.

The ICIJ report quoted Tariq Fawad Malik, a financial consultant who handled the paperwork for the companies, as saying that the companies were set up as part of the Tarin family’s intended investment in a bank with a Saudi business.

 Tarin said that his offshore companies named in the Pandora Papers were established around 2013 or 2014 when he was trying to raise capital for Silk Bank, for which Tarin has been the main sponsor since March 2008, according to the finance ministry's website.

Tarin said his offshore companies were created because Tariq Bin Laden's company Middle East Development had wanted to invested in Silk Bank. The minister said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was also involved and informed about the foreign company's wish to invest.

He said that the central bank had given principle approval and four offshore companies were created "for fundraising".

"But no accounts were opened and there were no transactions," he said, adding that Tariq bin Laden's company lost interest following a bomb blast in Karachi.

"So it was all finished. These companies were closed within a year and no bank accounts were opened. Not a single cent went in or came out," he said, adding that he could not understand why the companies were being highlighted.

Tarin reiterated the same on Twitter, saying that "no bank accounts were opened, no transactions took place and the companies stood closed".

When asked why the companies were opened in his and his family members' names, he said that he was the principal owner of the bank.

"If they wanted to invest, it had to be done through me. They needed to buy shares from me," he said, adding that his family members were also major shareholders of the bank.

He said that at one point he had to sell his shares in order to put money into the bank as the SBP had rejected some investors. "That's why I was looking for investors, so that I could sell my own shares."

The minister also dispelled the impression that the companies were opened in an effort to evade tax. "As far as I am concerned, I declare everything," he said.

Commenting on Prime Minister Imran Khan's declaration to investigate all citizens mentioned in the Pandora Papers, the minister said: "I am in favour of this. Action should be taken against any wrongdoing."

The finance minister said that he did not believe in tax evasion as he was a "citizen of Pakistan and I must pay taxes." He added that he had been one of the highest taxpayers in the country.

He said that the Federal Board of Revenue will investigate the companies named in the investigation.

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Not in my knowledge if talks have been initiated with TTP: Interior Minister

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed expressed on Monday ignorance about the government starting talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), just days after Prime Minister Imran Khan confirmed in an interview with Turkish broadcaster TRT World that talks with some factions of the banned outfit were underway.

Replying to a question during a press conference in Islamabad, Ahmed said, "The Ministry of Interior has no role in this [talks with the TTP], and if the Taliban are engaged in any dialogue then it is not in my knowledge."

He added that "nothing is final as to how this will end up".

To another question about whether he wanted talks to be held with the TTP, he replied that decisions on such matters were taking "at the highest level" by the prime minister.

"The Ministry of Interior does not make these decisions," he reiterated.

Acknowledging that army soldiers had been sacrificing lives in the fight against terrorism, he further stated that the prime minister had clarified that talks would be held with only those groups who would lay down their arms and would abide by the law and Constitution of Pakistan.

"Those who are terrorists and have caused harm to the country will not be engaged in dialogue."

Ahmed repeated that this was the prime minister's decision and his ministry was not involved in the matter.

The interior minister's stance on the matter comes amid growing criticism by the opposition over the government deciding to hold talks with the TTP and offer some factions of the banned outfit amnesty.

President Arif Alvi was the first one to hint at the possibility of the government giving amnesty to those members of the TTP who had not remained involved in "criminal activities" and who would lay down their weapons and agree to adhere to the Constitution.

Such an amnesty could be one of the ways to "establish peace", the president had said.

His remarks were followed by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi expressing similar sentiments in an interview on September 15.

He had said the government would be "open to giving" a pardon to members of the TTP if they promised not to get involved in terrorist activities and submit to the Constitution.

"But as long as they do not come and start undertaking terrorist activities [in Pakistan]. That is our concern," the minister had emphasised.

This followed PM Imran saying in the recent interview with the TRT World that "there are different groups which form the TTP and some of them want to talk to our government for peace. So, we are in talks with them. It’s a reconciliation process."

Later, Ahmed, too, had clarified that the amnesty offer was only for the "good Taliban".

“The case of those who were involved in incidents like the APS is different. And the case of those who left the country for different reasons is different,” he had said in reply to a question about the merit and mechanism of talks with the TTP. “We are not surrendering to anyone and this process is at a very early phase. No one needs to jump to conclusions at this stage.”

The move has drawn a strong reaction from the opposition, which had questioned why it had not been taken into confidence on the matter.

After PM Imran's interview, PPP leaders had said the move was akin to "sprinkling salt on the wounds of martyrs' families."

The party had called for the government to clarify in parliament the terms under which the talks were being held.

More recently on Sunday, opposition parties again asked the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government to take the parliament into confidence over the terms of engagements with the banned terrorist outfit and expressed concern over the government’s act of keeping the talks with the TTP secret.

Online visa service for Afghans

While speaking to the media on Monday, Ahmed also announced the launch of an online visa service for Afghanistan in three weeks, which would replace the visa-on-arrival system.

He further said 20,000 people from Afghanistan had entered Pakistan since August 15 and 6,000 had left for the former.

The minister added Integrated Border Management Systems had been installed at 16 terminals at the Chaman border and the system would later be installed at five more terminals.

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