Panama Papers: Impact on Pakistan 3 years on

ICIJ has published a story in which it assesses the impact of Panama papers in various countries, three years after the story broke in 2016. Surprisingly, Pakistan is not mentioned in the story at all despite the fact that the story had the most profound impact on this country. This article summaries the impact and ramifications of Panama Papers in Pakistan during the last 3 years.

Some 436 Pakistanis were named in the Panama papers. The elected prime minister of Pakistan at the time Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was NOT one of them. Despite this, the Panama papers story was spun to make Nawaz Sharif the central character in the affair by ICIJ’s country representative. Nawaz Sharif’s son was named in the story who is a permanent British resident with a long established property business in the country. Nawaz Sharif's picture was prominently displayed on the front page of Pakistani newspapers and on ICIJ website (later removed). The opposition and the military establishment in Pakistan saw the story as an opportunity to topple a popularly elected government. The matter was taken to the Supreme Court by the opposition which declined to hear the case calling it “frivolous”. The establishment in connivance with the opposition staged an unpopular public protest which failed to build any momentum The supreme court was pressured by the establishment behind the scenes and it suddenly took suo moto  notice of a matter it had previously called frivolous. The court ordered an inquiry into the matter. Five Pakistani agencies were asked to name members for the inquiry commission. It was later revealed that the Supreme Court secretly handpicked these members by sending WhatsApp messages to the heads of the agencies. Nawaz Sharif and his sons cooperated with the inquiry commission. His son submitted documents to establish legal acquisition of the mentioned properties. The inquiry commission, however, refused to travel outside Pakistan to verify these documents. Despite a one-sided inquiry, no link could be established between Nawaz Sharif and a few London apartments owned by his son. The Supreme Court however, still removed Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister on the basis of a matter totally unrelated to Panama papers. He was found guilty of not declaring a salary in his nomination papers. The salary was a paper arrangement between Nawaz Sharif and his son to enable him to get a resident visa in the UAE. The small amount (few thousand dollars neither paid nor received) was treated by the court as an undeclared asset. This was done despite the fact that Pakistani tax laws do not classify a receivable salary as an asset. Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from contesting elections for life for this grave crime without the right to appeal the verdict. The Supreme Court also directed the agencies to investigate the matter further setting up a series of trials under its direct supervision in which Nawaz Sharif was required to prove his innocence rather than the state being required to prove his guilt. Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to 7 years in Jail in one trial; a verdict which was later suspended by a higher court for lack of evidence. In a second day-to-day trial, he was again sentenced to jail. The judge in the second trial was later recorded on video confessing that he gave the verdict under pressure from the establishment. Despite the admission, the verdict still stands and the appeal is pending in the court awaiting hearing despite passage of almost a year. Today, Nawaz Sharif is fighting for his life in a Pakistani hospital after suspected poisoning in government custody. His daughter and political heir apparent Maryam Nawaz Sharif, has also been implicated and disqualified from contesting elections and jailed to prevent her from leading an anti-establishment movement.

Opposition leader Imran Khan, who took to the streets against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, came to power in an election rigged by the establishment in 2018. The 436 Pakistanis who were actually named in the Panama papers (several from Imran’s own party) were never prosecuted for their wealth abroad. Imran Khan launched an amnesty scheme soon after coming to power allowing these Pakistanis to launder their undeclared wealth for a nominal tax.