Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday informed Senate that the government is in contact with Swiss authorities to get access to the money stashed in Swiss banks by Pakistanis. Speaking in Senate on the Panama leaks, he said the government has fully authorised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to hold negotiations with Swiss authorities after getting approval from the Cabinet.
He said he stood by his statement and assure the house that $200 billion in Swiss banks would be brought back. He added: "don't suspect our intentions of the government as it is making sincere efforts for the uplift of the country." In the continued fallout after the release of the Panama Papers, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faced a barrage of criticism from Upper House of Parliament over revelations that his three children - Maryam, Hussain and Hassan - had set up offshore companies abroad.
Recalling the past track record which shows that no big fish ever faced the wrath of law, the enraged opposition lawmakers said that there is no hope that the handful rich, involved in holding offshore accounts, would ever be taken to task by the state. The MPs went on to say that it would a be a miracle if any rich or an influential is taken to task especially in the instant case. Referring to commission set up in the past to probe corruption scandals such as OGRA scam, Hajj and Ephedrine scandals, they maintained that it is useless to expect that the government would make any sincere effort to bring the culprits to book.
The senators belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) who seemed quite aggressive said that the fate of any commission to investigate Panama leaks, would be no different from the fates of numerous other commissions'. Senator Noman Wazir Khattak of PTI said that the legislators sitting in both houses of parliament had no will at all to bring the 'big fish' involved in the Panama leaks. "There is a need to make joint efforts against plunderers of national wealth who are not ready to invest their money in this country, but they leave no stone unturned to rule over the poor nation at any cost," he maintained.
He said that the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claimed in 2014 that a huge amount of money had been stashed away in foreign banks and it would be brought back to the country but nothing has been done in this regard. He asked the government to take Panama issue seriously or people will take to the streets against the political elite of the country. About the PPP leader whose names have also surfaced in the Panama leaks, he suggested that they too must present themselves for accountability. He reiterated the stance of his party to form a judicial commission headed by chief justice of Pakistan to hold a thorough probe into the matter through forensic experts.
Senator Sherry Rehman of PPP said that the way the UK prime minister has presented himself before parliament in the Panama matter, Nawaz Sharif should also take parliament into confidence on the issue. "We don't believe in politicising the issue or staging a sit-in on the Panama leaks. If you want to take the issue to its logical end, there should be a transparent probe into it," she maintained.
Senator Sherry also claimed that today there was no suo moto because there was no PPP government, saying there should be an across the board accountability as under the law we all are equal. She proposed an investigation into Panama leaks under a World Bank team. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) called for formation of a joint parliamentary commission (JPC) to investigate the Panama leaks scandal.
He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) would assist the proposed commission, which should be delegated full judicial powers. "The government should come clean on the matter," he added. If government avoids formation of a JPC, the Senate's ethics committee should be given the gigantic task to probe the matter. No judge or general or bureaucrat can decide it, he said, adding the time has come that parliament should go for self-accountability.
Panama leaks pose no threat to democracy or government, he said, adding that the government must not resort to stubbornness and come forward with a clear solution to the issue. He said that political point scoring and attempts to destabilise the government should be avoided. Taking part in the debate, ruling Senator Chaudhry Tanvir Khan said that offshore accounts and companies operate throughout the world, which is not illegal. But a situation is being created in the country to destabilise the government, he said.
"What was done during the tenure of former president [Zardari] is all before us. The Sharif family has made progress through hard work. We should decorate such people with gold medals who have raised monumental empires through hard work," he added.
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