Panama Papers: PTI finds another issue to drum up

ISLAMABAD: The “Panama Papers” have caused a fresh political row in Pakistan and the main combatants are the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

It is premature to hazard a guess about any political fallout for one party and the positive impact for the other. But certainly for the moment they have found something engaging to slam each other.

For quite some time, the PTI was devoid of any major political issue that it can drum up against its main adversary. It has found a readymade a matter now because of the Panama Papers leaks.

As it generally happens, the controversy will remain a topic for public discussion for some time before it will die down. But it will resurface in the future election campaign. The political noise generated by the WikiLeaks had also not lasted for too long. It has since totally been forgotten.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan has led the frontal attack on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the owning of offshore companies by Maryam, Hussain and Hassan. “I will not spare you and send you direct to the jail if I got the turn (to rule),” he threatened.

He urged the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the allegations and if it failed to do so it should be shut down. Hussain Nawaz has articulated his willingness to face the NAB and any other investigative agency about his foreign business.

However, Information Minister Pervez Rashid said the revelations contained in the Panama papers prove Imran Khan’s allegation wrong as Nawaz Sharif has no assets abroad. “Both the sons of Nawaz Sharif file their tax returns in accordance with law, and do business abroad like children of common Pakistanis do. The documents do not mention that Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif have properties out of Pakistan.”

Apart from Pervez Rashid, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Minister of State for Water & Power Abid Sher Ali have also strongly rejected the allegations against the Sharif family and taken on Imran Khan.

Interestingly, both Pervez Rashid and Imran Khan aired the view that the Panama papers vindicated their respective stands. Only they could explain how.

But there are some facts relating to the present clamour. A few weeks before the disclosures contained in the Panama Papers were made public, Hussain Nawaz started speaking about his foreign business and properties.

In a TV interview on March 6, he accepted that he owns the flats on Park Lane, London, which belong to offshore companies Nescon Ltd and Nelson Ltd, saying that he only enjoys the benefits of these assets. He said these assets are run by a trust held by his sister Maryam Nawaz. He called on accountability bodies to try former president Pervez Musharraf, “otherwise every ruler will do as he pleases and leave.” He said he forgave Musharraf for what he did to him.

After the news was broken now, Hussain is continuously repeating his same views to different TV channels. He has justified taking legitimate legal tax benefits. However, he is the only member of the Sharif family who is doing a lot of explaining because the offshore companies concern him.

Like his elder brother, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also doesn’t own any offshore companies. Importantly, since long he is not even on speaking terms with his relatives from his in-laws, who are proprietors of the named offshore companies. More than once, he has scolded them in a very harsh language for their questionable undertakings.

The PTI is the only party that is kicking off a lot of dust over the issue while no other political force is expected to talk about it too much. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will definitely not take exception to Hussain’s offshore companies in a hard hitting manner for the simple reason that its own key leaders also figure in the Panama papers in the same sense.

For the moment the shouting match is concentrated between the PML-N and PTI because they consider each other the main challenge.

But nobody is talking about 200 names of other Pakistanis, who, according to the Panama Papers, also have offshore companies. The focus is only on the Sharif family for the obvious reason that it rules Pakistan.