ISLAMABAD: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Monday filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking probe against Pakistani nationals named in the Pandora Papers, which like Panama Papers revealed names of owners of offshore companies, secret bank accounts and other assets.
JI Amir Sirajul Haq filed the miscellaneous application in the Panama leaks case and requested the apex court to investigate the people who own offshore properties.
Talking to media outside the court, JI chief said about 700 Pakistanis from the elite class were named in Pandora Papers but no action was taken against them.
Criticising the role of the National Accountability Bureau, Sirajul Haq said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government wanted to make the accountability watchdog and Election Commission of Pakistan a political wing and give NRO to itself. He said Imran Khan would talk about freeing the NAB from political influence when he was in the opposition. But NAB under his government was taking action only against the poor, he added.
He said 50 days had passed since the Pandora Papers came to light, but instead of taking any action, the government was doing nothing to investigate the owners of the offshore properties. Imran Khan was surrounded by mafia, he maintained.
“The elite class including judges has purchased properties in London,” he said.
Sirajul Haq said the JI had also strived against corruption. “In Panama Papers reference, I was a regular visitor of the top court for 111 days. There were 436 names in Panama Papers but the court punished only former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Four years have passed, but despite several applications, the court is not taking action against other people named in the Panama Papers,” he said.
He said on every corner of streets people were talking about corruption, but the ruling government was completely helpless to end the financial embezzlement.
The JI petition stated that Pandora Papers were a continuation of the Panama Leaks. The petition sought an action against the Pakistanis whose names had appeared in the Pandora Papers, saying that those who had looted national wealth, should be held accountable.
In the petition, the federal government is made a party to the case, as names of many politicians and their relatives, generals, businessmen and media barons have emerged in the Pandora Leaks.
In the Pandora Papers investigation, around 600 journalists of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists from all over the world took part and compiled some 11.9 million documents using data from 14 offshore financial service companies.