Pandora Papers: How Pakistani taxpayers' money was gobbled up by political elites and deep state

In a pathbreaking development, the leak of financial records known as ‘Pandora Papers’, corroborated with an investigation of several months by involving over 150 news organisations and several journalists associated with them under the umbrella of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) - a consortium of media organisations from all over the and based out of Washington DC.

The ICIJ accessed around 11.9 million secret documents from 14 different legal and financial entities, which revealed illegal transactions, tax evasions, and offshore financial assets of several top business and political leaders from all over the world. Moreover, it has also removed the veil from the faces of top legal and financial firms for their involvement in promoting ‘black money’ through illegal channelisation of money and the creation of fake entities.

According to the ICIJ, these papers provide “a sweeping look at an industry that helps the world's ultra wealthy, powerful government officials and other elites conceal trillions of dollars from tax authorities, prosecutors and others.”

As far as the magnitude is concerned, the ICIJ disclosed that the volume of the confidential documents was as voluminous as 2.94 terabytes, making the leak mightier than the Panama Papers leak half a decade back.

These papers have also exposed the names of several ruling elites of Pakistan, who funneled money illegally to their own pockets by possibly misappropriating the public money. The majority of these leaders come from the inner coterie of Prime Minister Imran Khan and include big names - as big as current and former cabinet ministers.

Over the black money acquired by close confidantes of Imran Khan, the ICIJ reported that they “secretly owned an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth.”

Revealing big names of the ruling elites, the ICIJ reported - “Among those whose holdings named are Khan’s finance minister, Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, and his family, and the son of Khan’s former adviser for finance and revenue, Waqar Masood Khan. The documents also mentioned the offshore dealings of a top PTI donor, Arif Naqvi, who is facing fraud charges in the United States.”

As the controversy broke out, Imran Khan tweeted - “We welcome the Pandora Papers exposing the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion & corruption & laundered out to financial "havens". The UN SG's Panel FACTI calculated a staggering $7 trillion in stolen assets parked in largely offshore tax havens.” However, besides this tweet, he has failed to take any tangible decision against the leaders mentioned in Pandora Papers till this news was being written.

Speculating the involvement of Imran Khan in these leaks, a spokesperson of his party, officially told the press just before the leaks that Imran Khan owned no offshore entities, however, his ministers and advisors “will have to be held accountable”.

It is an irony that Imran Khan optimally utilised the Panama Papers leak of 2016, which had, amongst many other things, disclosed that the children of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif owned a string of luxury apartments in London. Khan, back then, tried to create a sentiment against the then ruling family of Pakistan.

Campaigning on the issue, his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) organised protests all over the country and Khan himself led a sit-in protest in front of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s house. Khan demanded Sharif to resign on moral grounds over his involvement in corruption.

Over the emergence of names that are close to Imran Khan, ICIJ stated - “With the support of the military establishment, Khan propelled his reformist party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Movement for Justice, past its rivals in the 2018 national elections and propelled himself into the prime minister’s office in Islamabad.”

However, it is the Pakistani military leadership whose financial irregularities and scams have made the top headlines in Pakistan.

Commenting on the sinister designs of the Pakistani military and its intelligence agency ISI, the ICIJ has tried to argue that these organisations bank on popular public sentiments by cultivating anti-India rhetoric in the country to protect themselves from being questioned on corrupt practices. 

Highlighting the argument, the ICIJ has commented - “Over the decades, the military and its secretive spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, have repeatedly stoked anti-India animus, even at the cost of angering Pakistan’s Western allies… Foreign policy analysts have accused the military of playing a double game, receiving billions of dollars in U.S military support while continuing to work with members of the Afghan Taliban.”

In one of the prominent examples of indulgence of military leadership in corruption, the Pandora Papers have revealed that former army general and former minister Raja Nadir Pervez misused his company to transfer shares to a trust controlling several offshore entities.

It is pertinent to note that Pervez is a top leader of Imran Khan’s PTI party and illegally benefitted entities dealing with the arms trade.

Similarly, ICIJ also revealed the name of ISI’s former DG of counterintelligence, Major General Nusrat Naeem, who got a company registered just after his retirement along with former Pakistan Air Force Chief Abbas Khattak’s sons who also own an offshore company.

According to the leaked files, Pakistan’s former military dictator General Ayub Khan’s daughter Shahnaz Sajjad Ahmad owns two apartments in London. Shahnaz did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.

It can be said that currently, Imran Khan is facing the heat on two fronts. Besides the global embarrassment, he is facing a strong backlash from opposition parties, which he hasn’t been able to cope with. As soon as the revelations were published, PML-N Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal came out to the press and stated - “After Imran Khan’s name surfaced in Pandora leaks, there is no moral justification for him to retain the post of the premier.”

Further, PML-N spokesperson Maryam Aurangzeb addressed a press conference and demanded, “Imran Khan is bound to direct all his ministers and aides named in Pandora leaks to resign with immediate effect.”

Another opposition party, Pakistan People’s Party also joined the chorus and its leaders Sherry Rehman attacked Imran Khan and questioned his shallow accountability slogans.