Daily Times

Talk to the man on the street or the top-rated talk show anchor, the gist is the same: the Panama Papers leaks is a political bombshell with high targets and collateral damage. I am not interested to see if that is going to happen or not. What I am interested in is the lessons of changing market dynamics of Pakistan that the Panama Paper leaks have revealed.

The first lesson: it pays to be operating under the radar. The ongoing debate on the Panama leaks is about holding accountable all those prominent political figures whose names appeared in the Panama Papers for establishing offshore companies, allegedly with taxpayers’ money. Pinpointing the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who owns five of the offshore companies mentioned in the Panama leaks is merely one side of the story. However, there is more to that story. It is the story of the Panama leaks that reveals 455 companies established offshore by Pakistani citizens. It is yet to be established whether the individuals listed for registering offshore companies were taxpayers or tax defaulters.

The second lesson: the time duration is interesting as it spans democratic, dictatorship and ‘enlightened moderate dictatorship’ eras. The understanding of the Panama leaks for a common man is that a wealthy segment of our society is wealthy enough to run offshore companies giving no gain to Pakistan’s economy. In this context the Panama Papers provide a clue that can help us connect dots to trace the actions of this wealthy segment. The Panama Papers list offshore companies that were registered in 1988, and the process continues to 2015. During the initial six years there are 54 ‘pioneer’ offshore companies registered by Pakistani citizens, among which seven companies are owned by three females. Is that women empowerment or only lip service? But I digress.

The third lesson: the changing commercial face of Pakistan. The Panama Papers disclose that 203 registered offshore companies are owned by individuals who are from Pakistan’s commercial hub, Karachi. Considering commercial significance among the listed offshore companies, 23 belong to individuals of Lahore, nine from Gujranwala and four are registered by residents of Faisalabad, followed by three companies from Gujrat. Faisalabad, known to us as Manchester of Pakistan, shows a low number of offshore companies registered by its individuals, and that could be because of lack of opportunity. Speaking of this lack of opportunity, Panama leaks show that Sialkot that has been in race with Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad in commercial terms does not have any representation in the Panama Papers.

Another revealing aspect of the Panama leaks reflects that the second highest number of offshore companies, 96, is registered under names of individuals of the capital city, Islamabad, not leaving behind its twin city, which has 10 offshore companies registered in the names of individuals of Rawalpindi. These figures reveal that the highest number of wealthy individuals who have established offshore companies is not found in commercially prosperous areas like Faisalabad and Sialkot but in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The surprising findings from the second list of the Panama Papers puts Peshawar, a provincial capital, and Chenab Nagar, a city of the district Chiniot of the Punjab province, at the same level. There are seven offshore companies registered in name of individuals from Peshawar and Chenab Nagar. All of this reveals the level of distrust that many people have while investing and generating assets within Pakistan. Chenab Nagar being a small city, instead of investing in bigger commercial areas within Pakistan, prefers to transfer its assets offshore.

Where commercially significant cities like Sialkot show no sign of offshore companies in the Panama leaks, there is an offshore company each registered from Muridke and Malakand. Moreover, among the offshore companies two owned by individuals of the Khyber agency of the troubled Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) also made it to the Panama Papers. Balochistan is not represented in the Panama leaks. Perhaps, those with money they don’t wish to reveal prefer keeping their cash under mattresses and/or in milk cartons!

The Panama Papers do not tell us about geographical facts of the owners of 85 offshore companies that were registered before or by 2015. The areas that are, to our surprise, missing from the Panama Papers are either among these 85 offshore companies or are also owned by the wealthy segment of Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.

Speaking of female representation, we know that Pakistan is a country where as a cultural norm many women are denied the right of owning property. Women are often found giving away their share to their brothers as a ‘gesture of goodwill’, without having the same gesture reciprocated by their brothers. On the other side, it is also witnessed that female members are brought forward in political arena when male political figures are not given a ticket by their party for one reason or the other. Similar level of trust in women is observed at the professional level, and that is visible in the Panama Papers. In the second list revealing ownership of offshore companies there are 133 companies registered in names of 92 women. The extent of ownership of these offshore companies is not known, whether these women are actually empowered, or it is token representation like in the political arena.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 states that Pakistan has been ranked at 129 out of 144 economies around the world. The picture of Pakistan that we see at international level is that both the state and citizens are bankrupt. However, the data revealed by the Panama Papers presents a different picture. We find names of our prominent political figures listed among those who have established offshore companies, and media is demanding that we hold them accountable. Besides political figures there are other Pakistani citizens listed in the Panama Papers who transfer their assets offshore either being a taxpayer or a tax defaulter. I am not going to join the chorus of ‘across-the-board’ accountability, but I will say one thing: the Panama Papers have indicated that perhaps Pakistan has a face other than the traditional, urban, commercial one that is known to us.

The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com