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ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday approved a 12-member parliamentary committee that will draft the terms of reference (ToRs) for the proposed Panamagate inquiry commission.
The committee's first meeting will be on Wednesday.
The committee comprises six government ministers and six opposition lawmakers:
- Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar
- Ports and Shipping Minister Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo
- Defence Minister MNA Khawaja Mohammad Asif
- IT Minister MNA Anusha Rehman
- Housing and Works Minister MNA Akram Khan Durrani
- Railways Minister MNA Saad Rafique
- Muttahida Qaumi Movement Senator Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif
- PPP Senator Aitzaz Ahsan
- Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA Shah Mehmood Qureshi
- Jamaat-i-Islami MNA Sahibzada Tariqullah
- Awami National Party Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour
- PML-Q MNA Tariq Basheer Cheema
The speaker may replace any member of the committee on the request of the leader of the parliamentary party concerned, a notification issued by the NA Secretariat says.
The committee will consider options for inquiring into issues raised by the Panama Papers including offshore companies, transfer from Pakistan of funds originating from corruption, commission or kickbacks, and written-off bank loans.
It will also determine the priority level of each of the above. The formulation of ToRs and a timeline for submission will be decided by the committee, which must submit a report to Parliament within two weeks.
Panama Papers
The data from the Panama Papers, available on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — one of around 100 news organisations and 300 journalists that worked on mining the data simultaneously — has revealed the financial wheelings and dealings of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family, among dozens of others, including world leaders.
According to documents available on the ICIJ website, the PM’s children Maryam, Hassan and Hussain “were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies”.
Maryam is described as “the owner of British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, incorporated in 1994 and 1993”.
On one of the documents released by ICIJ, the address listed for Nielsen Enterprises is Saroor Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The document, dated June 2012, describes Maryam Safdar as the ‘beneficial owner’.
According to ICIJ, “Hussain and Maryam signed a document dated June 2007 that was part of a series of transactions in which Deutsche Bank Geneva lent up to $13.8 million to Nescoll, Nielsen and another company, with their London properties as collateral.”
Hassan Nawaz Sharif is described as “the sole director of Hangon Property Holdings Limited incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in February 2007, which acquired Liberia-based firm Cascon Holdings Establishment Limited for about $11.2 million in August 2007”.
But the papers are not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. According to The Guardian, using offshore structures is entirely legal.
