Daily Times

The 700 Pakistanis named in the Pandora Papers include high profile politicians, businessmen, even armed forces personnel and media moguls; and in some cases members of their families as well. Now, since it’s very clear that keeping offshore accounts is not illegal if duly declared to the country’s tax and election authorities, the government has done the logical thing of ordering an expansive inquiry, most likely to be undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Now all that remains is to establish which of the people and families named followed proper procedure and which did not, and take action accordingly.

Needless to say of course that anybody in government that has been named in the list and failed to report it, for whatever reason, to relevant legal authorities, should be asked to step down pending formal proceedings. And those outside government should also be proceeded against as soon as the investigation is over. If anything, this revelation vindicates the stance of the Pakistani government, which has been lobbying against the financial safe haven phenomenon for quite a while because it encourages fraud and corruption in the third world and widens the rich-poor gap which, as PM Imran Khan said recently, will eventually cause large scale migration towards rich countries, putting them under more pressure than they can handle.

Such revelations also make it easier for countries like Pakistan to ensure a degree of transparency. Everybody knows that the rich and powerful stash a big bulk of their money away from the prying eyes of tax authorities, especially when much of the money is ill-gotten, yet nobody would have known just who moved how much money clandestinely and for what purpose if not for such reports. Therefore, now that the cat is out of the bag, the government should move with speed and precision to settle this matter once and for all. The prime minister has already formed a “high-level cell” to investigate this matter and investigate all individuals concerned, so the ball has been set rolling. *