close
Friday March 29, 2024

FBR starts probe into Panama Papers’ revelations

By Ashraf Malkham
November 11, 2017

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has formally started investigations about the persons mentioned in Paradise Papers having offshore companies. Initially, the FBR has identified 19 out of 135 persons mentioned in Paradise Papers, The News learnt reliably.

Sources in the FBR confided to The News on Friday that names were taken from list published in The News and Daily Jang. After a scrutiny, 19 persons have been identified and their details are being collected from concerned department. Officials involved in the exercise said that three different letters have been sent to the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to get details of these persons.

The sources, refusing to identify names of these persons, said that details of the companies registered with the SECP and businesses have been sought. Similarly in the letter addressed to the SBP, information about the accounts of these persons in different banks has been asked. The SBP has also been requested to provide details of the transaction carried out from the accounts at national as well as international level. Nadra has been asked to provide all details of these persons.

Officials on condition of anonymity told this correspondent that in future the exercise to identify will continue and as soon as any identification is done they will also be investigated as is being done in PanamaLeaks. No person will be spared due to his political, official or financial status. He gave the example of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family who were asked to explain their position at that time. And proper investigation was conducted.