Pakistan to probe 435 offshore company owners

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan's top anti-corruption authority on Tuesday ordered an inquiry against more than 400 influential citizens whose alleged offshore companies were unearthed by the whistleblower Panama Papers last year.

Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal, chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB), directed investigation officers not to “bow to any pressure” during the probe, according to a statement from the authority.

In April last year, the Panama Papers named 435 Pakistani politicians and businesspeople, including the family of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who owned offshore companies in Panama and British Virgin Islands.

The three-time premier was disqualified by Pakistan’s top court in July this year in the scandal for concealing his assets.

The Panama Papers, released by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in April 2016, pointed fingers at 140 politicians worldwide, including 11 current and former national leaders.

Their revelation sent shockwaves across the world, resulting in the resignation of Iceland’s premier Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and putting political pressure on then British Prime Minister David Cameron, who later admitted to having a profitable stake in a fund owned by his father.