Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has revealed that 294 Pakistanis out of 444 who have been named in the Panama Papers leak have been sent notices. The information came from Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umar who said that authorities could not trace 150 people involved in the leak while four had given up their Pakistani nationalities already.
Collectively 15 cases worth Rs10.9 billion (Pakistani rupees) were in the final stage of the investigation, while the authorities had only managed to recover Rs 6.2 billion, the Finance minister said in his written reply.
As reported by India Today, the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) has acquired financial records of at least 96,000 Pakistanis abroad, which includes names of those in the Panama leaks, said Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar said. “The Imran Khan-led government has initiated inquiries,” he added. He said that the previous government has refrained from investigating. The Imran Khan government has said that he won’t tolerate any corrupt practices in his country. He is bent on investigating the cases which involve illegal and corrupt practices to hide their assets abroad.
Panama Paper leak
Panama papers are leaked documents of about 1.15 crore files containing details of about 2.15 lakh bank accounts. The documents were leaked from Mossack Fonseca, which is headquartered at Panama. The Panama Papers is one of the biggest leaks and largest collaborative investigations.
The media industry played a big role in digging out names involved in the scam. More than 2,14,000 offshore entities appear in the leak, connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories. The current data includes names of the former prime minister of Iceland, the president of Ukraine, and the king of Saudi Arabia.
Many powerful names are included in the list which includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, China’s President Xi Jinping, and former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto among others.
