Ishaq Dar rejects JIT allegations

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Tuesday said allegations against him in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report submitted in the Supreme Court in PanamaLeaks case were wrong as himself sent all details to tax returns to the probe body.He said the inconclusive report of the JIT was full of gaps, weaknesses and faults.

Speaking at a press conference, he said, "I cannot understand why the JIT failed to reconcile the financial statements. Either it has no capacity or it was malafide." He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not own any offshore company and the professionals in the legal team of Sharif family were studying every aspect of the JIT report.

"There were a lot of weaknesses and unsigned documents generated by the JIT. There are many papers in the report which cannot even be read. Many papers in the report are unbelievable," he said.

He said the JIT itself wrote to the Supreme Court to decide whether the papers collected by it had any evidentiary value or not. "We should move patiently as the JIT report is inconclusive." He said due process demanded that defendants in the Panama Papers case should be confronted with evidence. "According to our professional team, nothing is directly reflected on the prime minister." Ishaq Dar explained in detail his wealth and income tax returns during the years 1981 to 2002 and onwards.

He said it was wrong to say that he did not file tax returns from 1981 to 2002 and subsequent years. He said during the regime of General (R) Pervez Musharraf, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took away his tax record in 2002. He said when he came to know about the missing tax returns from the JIT, he sent the record available with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to the JIT but this fact was not mentioned in the report. He said the missing record in custody of NAB was also recovered and delivered to the JIT.

The minister said the JIT did not ask him about many issues, but it simply levelled allegations against him in the report. Ishaq Dar said that after the Musharraf's coup, he had got job offers from the Asian Development Bank, Dubai and the United Kingdom. He said he accepted the job of a financial adviser in Dubai and resigned in 2008 to join the federal cabinet in Pakistan.

He said on his return to the homeland, he had decided that he and his sons would not do business in the country while he was in politics. He said he made investments in Pakistan's treasury bonds and earned profit, and declared everything.

Talking about charity given by him, he said he was running two charities -- Hajveri Trust and Hajveri Foundation. In the year 2004-05, he said, he donated Rs80 million to the Hajvery Trust which looked after 92 orphaned children.

"These children are getting education. One of them has done chartered accountancy and many others are doing A levels and other courses," he said. Ishaq Dar said he set up Hajvery Foundation for medical assistance of the needy people, relief during disasters and marriages of children from poor families.

During the 2009 and 2010 floods, he said he donated Rs20 million for flood victims. He said the audited accounts of Hajveri Foundation and Hajveri Trust were available for anybody to check.

Dar said he donated Rs50 million for a kidney hospital in Swat while his salary as senator and minister went to the Hajveri Foundation. He said all his assets from a pin to the Mercedes car were part of the record, which could be accounted for. He offered the Supreme Court to get conducted audit of his assets from any internationally renowned audit firm at his expense. Dar rejected the JIT's allegations that his assets were beyond his known sources of income as every penny owned by him could be reconciled.

Talking about Hudaibiya Papers Mill case, he said 13 judges on different occasions had quashed the case.  The minister pointed out that Imran Khan was repeatedly running away from legal proceedings in the Supreme Court and other courts. He said they were answerable to the people of Pakistan for the performance of their government. Dar asked the opposition to stop the unending cycle of levelling allegations and let Pakistan develop.