A Panama republic

This week we have been distracted by the political storm raised by the Panama Papers, because the leaks have also spotlighted the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Imran Khan is bracing his party for a sequel to the 2014 ‘dharna’, and this time it is to be a long march to the Sharif estate in Raiwind. But is this the catalyst we have waited for to reinvent Pakistan’s politics and governance?

There is no doubt that the prime minister is in a bind, though allegations about his family’s holdings and assets abroad are not new. However, he is in distinguished company in this respect, even within Pakistan, irrespective of the latest revelations. It is remarkable that we have lived with these transgressions for a long time.

And the people – the proverbial awam – have apparently reconciled themselves to this state of affairs. Or, they are effectively incapable of changing a system in which it is easy for the rich and powerful to get richer and more powerful. They may be excitedly watching the proceedings of the National Assembly and the outbursts of the partisan politicians who dominate the talk shows but it is their passivity in these affairs that stands out.

Big money is wedded to politics in a sinful alliance, and the upheaval triggered by the Panama Papers is unlikely to activate a new process to enforce accountability and transparency in our system of governance. It may be valid to focus on the prime minister in the immediate context, but the curse of corruption and tax evasion and money laundering is spread across the entire ruling class, including business tycoons.

It is, nevertheless, useful to look at the global reverberations caused by the Panama Papers. At one level, it has highlighted the issues of tax havens and money laundering and how money, often earned through dubious means, is hidden in offshore accounts. What is legal and what is not legal is a matter for experts to decide. In any case, it is obvious that great fortunes are involved, in a world where inequality in incomes is threatening the social order.

We should also take note of the magnitude of the leaks and how more than 370 journalists from 76 countries got access to millions of documents from the computers of a Panama law firm, which specialises in offshore holding companies. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) deserves credit for following the leaks from the records of Mossack Fonseca, the firm that naturally denies any wrongdoing.

Consider also the fact that only one law firm registered in Panama has been hacked, though it may be the largest. There are tax havens in the Cayman Island and the British Virgin Islands. Yet, what we have is history’s biggest data leak and it relates to more than 200,000 companies. There is a trove of 11.5 million documents that have not been examined. So we still have more surprises in the offing.

Conspiracy theorists have been tickled by the fact that among the public figures and executives who have been named, there are no well-known Americans. So, could CIA or some other secret agency be behind it? Russia’s Putin and Pakistan’s Rehman Malik would want to suggest this possibility. One argument is that the United States had recently cracked down on banks holding the offshore or secret accounts of Americans. Besides, sufficient facilities to hide money are said to be available in the country.

Opposition leaders in Pakistan have repeatedly urged Nawaz Sharif to follow the example of the prime minister of Iceland, who resigned after his wife was named in the leaks. But how this happened is something that our politicians may not be able to understand. In the first place, Iceland, a small Nordic island nation in Europe, is a strong democracy and when the news appeared, many thousands of citizens came out in the capital, Reykjavik, to demand their prime minister’s resignation.

The total population of Iceland, as the latest figures show, is 331,234. It is for you to calculate how many Icelands would make up one Karachi, let alone the sixth most populous country in the world. And the citizens who came out to protest constituted a significant percentage of the electorate.

How have the people or the civil society responded to the inclusion of more than 200 Pakistanis, with the Sharif family in the lead, in the initial leaks? One knows of no popular protest. The only large self-motivated gatherings we see in Pakistan are of religious activists rooting for obscurantist causes. Our mainstream political parties have to, generally, rent a crowd. There are no multitudes chanting passionately for a social revolution, though this does not deter the leaders from threatening to take to the streets.

It is also important to observe the prevailing norms and practices of the democracy that we have. Remember the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) finding that placed the ruling PML-N at the end of the list of our major political parties in terms of internal democracy? The leader is the party and this applies to almost all other parties. There are other issues that relate to the code of conduct and exercise of authority that I will not want to go into. The point, simply, is that our democracy is flawed.

Consequently, most of our institutions are eminently imperfect. Stories of corruption that are usually reported with some credence are hard to believe, considering the checks and balances that exist on paper. So much is known about what our elected representatives can get away with. The pity is that, with some honourable exceptions, they belong to the rich and the socially influential class. A number of our political families figure in the Panama Papers. Sadly, we even have one serving and one retired judge in this gallery.

We can imagine the reaction of concerned citizens in advanced democratic societies, when suspicions of tax evasion or money laundering are cast on any of their leaders. There would certainly be consequences. But in a country like Pakistan, the tendency would be to just shrug off such allegations. Tax evasion is a game we play with more success than our cricketers can claim in international competitions. Our corrupt politicians are fond of flaunting their wealth and power. It is hard to dispel the impression that their impoverished followers do not mind this show of pomp and glory.

Yes, all this must change. If holding Nawaz Sharif accountable for his family’s wealth is the beginning, we should welcome this prospect. But this will demand extensive soul-searching on the part of all our leaders, in politics and beyond.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com