Parliamentary panel be formed to probe offshore accounts

Senate kicks off debate on Panama Leaks

ISLAMABAD: As the Senate kicked off the debate on the Panama Papers, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed put the government in the dock while pointing out that the government had mishandled the whole episode after the leaks and proposed the formation of a joint parliamentary commission for an across-the-board investigation of the offshore accounts and people mentioned in the Panama Papers.

“It’s a time that parliament should make accountability of itself rather than looking for a referee or accountability through a retired bureaucrat or retired general,” said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed while initiating the debate on the Panama Papers in the Senate on Friday.

In a well-articulated speech, Senator Mushahid Hussain not only pointed out the mishandling of the whole episode of the Panama Papers by the government but also presented a three-point formula to take the issue to its conclusion with the formation of a parliamentary commission for an across-the-board probe of all those from Pakistan named in the Panama Papers.

PPP’s Sherry Rehman suggested that the prime minister should present himself before parliament and the matter should be investigated independently. “We do not believe in politics of sit-ins and resignations but want the issue be investigated independently,” she said.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that political point-scoring and attempts to destabilise the government on the matter should be avoided. He said a joint parliamentary commission should be constituted for an across-the-board investigation of the people mentioned in the Panama Leaks. “This commission should be fully empowered and allowed to get the necessary information from important institutions like the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Investigation Authority (FIA). If the government is hesitant to form a joint parliamentary commission, the Senate could take a lead by forming the ethics committee for the accountability of parliamentarians,” he suggested.

Second, he proposed that it should also be made incumbent upon the members to declare their offshore assets before the Election Commission of Pakistan.Third, he suggested the government should legislate on the conflict of interests. “The time has come that parliament should come up to take a lead to make itself accountable and this decision should be taken sooner than later.”

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said the government had mishandled the whole issue after the Panama Leaks. “The prime minister should not address the nation without thinking as it could further fuel the confusion,” he added. He said the problem was that once the issue came up, it should be taken to its logical conclusion.

He said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in 2014 claimed that $200 billion of Pakistanis were in Swiss accounts but so far the government had not made any contact with the Swiss government in this regard. He said the Swiss government had passed the legislation in 2010 under which they could share all the information with other states seeking assistance for the disclosure of the accounts’ details.

He asked the government to come clean rather than using the issue for political point-scoring.Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that the issue of Panama Leaks was creating a crisis for the government. He said the names of 220 Pakistanis were mentioned in Panama Papers and among them, 143 were politicians while the other names included a serving judge, two parliamentarians and others. “The Panama Papers were not a conspiracy against any government as the consortium of independent journalists in which investigative reporter of The News Umer Cheema was also a part and German newspaper shared the information with over 100 newspapers of the world including The News of Pakistan.”

He said the name of the father of British Prime Minister David Cameron was also mentioned in the Panama Papers as he was avoiding tax while the son (British PM David Cameron) was running a campaign for the tax culture. “On this issue, the prime minister of Iceland resigned while British PM David Cameron thrice changed his statements and finally presented his tax details in the British Parliament,” he added.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said the disclosures of the Panama Papers were in fact whistleblowers.Concluding his speech, he said the government should keep its faith in parliament and not to linger on this issue as there was no threat to democracy and even to the government due to Panama Leaks but the image of Pakistan was being distorted. “To improve Pakistan’s image, the government should resolve the issue by taking a solid decision as a bad decision is better than not taking any decision,” he added.

Senator Chaudhry Tanveer Hussain of the PML-N in his remarks said that it was the first time in the country’s history that the prime minister had presented his family for accountability by constituting a commission. He said the present government had started mega development projects but certain elements were bent upon creating hurdles in its way.

He said that investment was pouring into the country due to the prudent economic policies of the government. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project was just the beginning of the march towards achieving socio-economic development.He came hard on opposition leader Aitzaz Ahsan and said that there was a perception that he was good orator but he failed to impress him.