ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday submitted a report in the Supreme Court on Pakistani nationals who own offshore companies mentioned in the Panama Papers and Paradise leaks. Earlier on Feb 15, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, had held suo motu proceedings in the matter involving 444 Pakistani nationals. The court directed the FBR to advertise the names of these offshore companies’ owners on its website. In its report, the FBR issued names of 151 Pakistanis who own offshore companies, which included 27 women. Besides these 27 women, the report stated, there were 55 other women owning offshore companies belonging to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi. However, they were no longer found living at their given addresses. It said there were another 99 Pakistanis who owned offshore companies, but their addresses were not available. The FBR has requested the public at large to share information about these persons with it. It has assured the public the names of those assisting the bureau would be kept secret. On last hearing, the court also constituted a three-member committee to suggest within a week legal guidelines that can help the government bring back the money illegally transferred out of the country and kept in foreign bank accounts. The committee headed by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Tariq Bajwa, comprises Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Muhammad Irshad and federal finance secretary Arif Ahmad Khan. The committee was formed after the FBR apprised the court that there were no legal guidelines or framework available to retrieve the money stored in the banks abroad. On February 1, CJP Mian Saqib Nisar had taken a suo motu notice of the matter and directed the FBR, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and Finance Ministry to submit details of wealth deposited in foreign bank accounts or being stored abroad by Pakistani citizens. The CJP also sought details of foreign assets held by Pakistani citizens, while noting that reports were circulating that many Pakistanis in positions of power held accounts in foreign banks and were looting the country’s money and transferring it abroad through illegal channels. He noted that the money looted and deposited in overseas bank accounts was a national asset and had to be brought back to Pakistan at any cost.
Published in Daily Times, February 24th 2018.