Summary The board will share the data with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated probe into second set of Panama leaks, Dunya News reported Tuesday.
The board has started gathering data of the persons named in Panama leaks. However, officials stated that legally the department is not allowed to gather income tax and wealth tax data older than 2010. Sources privy to the board stated that the law does not permit gathering data older than 2010.
The board will share the data with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Panama Papers published second set of leaks by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) through an anonymous source on May 9. Documents and the data belong to Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm.
Around 259 Pakistanis were named yesterday in the leaks and allegedly own offshore companies. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Aleem Khan was alleged yesterday to which he responded in a press conference. According to him, he was not named in Panama leaks and rival politicians were using journalists to place news stories against him in local newspapers.
The second set of leaks show over 108 persons belonging to Lahore while 150 from Karachi. Dealing through unregistered offshore companies means that the alleged persons shifted their money to foreign countries and evaded taxes.
Panama leaks merely mention names of persons who own offshore companies but none can say for sure if those are illegal unless proven.
Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s family was named earlier by the media outlet in April among 140 leaders of the world.
Leader of the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif recieved a lot of flak after the incident. His sons who deal with family s businesses admitted having offshore companies but stated that they were legal while the Prime Minister insisted that all his assets were declared.
However, opposition parties especially PTI did not take the issue lightly and announced rallying in different cities.
According to the latest development in the issue, Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly (NA), Khursheed Shah has demanded the Prime Minister to present his stance in the Parliament. Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid, Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) senior members and Jamat-e-Islami’s representatives have held different meetings in the recent past to discuss the issue.
