Law of confidentiality won’t apply on commission demands: Zafarullah

Asad Umar says commission lacks powers to obtain information

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are bound to provide complete information about taxes, past income tax returns or asset statements of individuals and companies or details of bank accounts and local or foreign money transaction to the Inquiry Commission on the Panama Leaks, states the federal government.

The government has come on record to respond to all the specific objections being raised to the Inquiry Commission and its ToRs and has taken responsibility that all the assistance will be forwarded and any information will be provided by any government departments including the FBR and SBP and the legal provisions of maintaining confidentiality of tax returns, asset statements and bank accounts will not apply when the commission, having the status of a court, will seek information or the documents.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, who played a key role in the drafting of the ToRs stated that the FBR and SBP would be bound to provide complete information sought by the commission and no confidentiality law would be applicable when the commission would seek any personal information of any individual regarding his taxes, asset statements, bank accounts and money transfers.

“The commission is a national institution and will be acting as a court. When a court of law seeks any information from the FBR or SBP, no confidentiality laws apply and complete information has to be provided by the institutions concerned. Despite this, I state with full responsibility that the FBR and SBP will be bound to provide the complete information required by commission,” said Barrister Zafarullah Khan.

Senior PTI leader Asad Umar told The News that there was no need to add or remove any point in the ToRs of the commission and the basic problem lay with the 1956 Law of the Commission of Inquiry. “The 1956 act is a weak legislation. It doesn’t give any powers to the commission to seek information from different government departments and it will be a toothless commission,” Asad Umar said. When asked by The News which powers the commission would need and had not been provided by the commission under the 1956 law, Asad Umar replied that the major issue with the commission would be obtaining complete information regarding different individuals from the FBR and SBP as both would not provide the same because of the confidentiality laws. “Under the 1956 law, a commission can obtain information from any government department but this power is subject to the relevant laws and confidentiality laws provide that personal financial and tax information is secret,” Asad Umar said adding, “similarly, if any information will be required from other countries or international banks or other financial institutions, the federal government will have to write a letter to the government or the international institution concerned. Under the 1956 Act, a commission is not empowered to order the government to write such a letter. That is why we are demanding the making of a new law. A new legislation can address all these issues.”

When The News put the same question before the federal government, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, who is the relevant person, responded that these objections were raised because of misconceptions. He said that any national institution like NAB or the FIA could write to governments for mutual legal assistance or any international financial institution and the same was happening as routine. He said that Inquiry Commission would also be a national institution and would have powers to write such a letter. “Despite this, I can assure that if commission asks the government to write any such letter to any government or any international institution, the federal government will do so immediately,” Barrister Zafarullah stated.

On the objection that under the ToRs, the commission will not be able to order a forensic audit of the accounts and money transfers, Barrister Zafarullah said that again it was a misconception and it was already provided in the ToRs that the commission could summon any tax or accounting experts who obviously could be ordered to conduct a forensic audit of anything. “Forensic audit means an in-depth examination of each and every transaction which is the basic function of these tax, accounting and audit experts,” said Zafarullah. 

On the question of provision of budget to carry out any such forensic audits or to pay any international experts, Barrister Zafarullah said that point six of the ToRs reads that the Cabinet Division shall provide secretarial assistance to the commission. He said that those asking this question were unable to understand the meaning of ‘secretarial assistance’. He said that the Cabinet Division would be bound to provide any kind of logistic and financial assistance to the commission whenever it ordered the same. 

Barrister Zafarullah said that in case of all the previous commissions, including the commission on rigging, the Abbottabad Commission and commission on missing persons, the government had been providing all kind of financial assistance to them. He said whatever funds were required by the Inquiry Commission on the Panama Leaks, the same would be provided immediately.