Opp rejects ‘PML-N-linked’ Osmany as probe chief

• Shah demands enquiry commission headed by Senate Chairman Rabbani, Qureshi suggests formation of parliamentary commission to probe Panama Papers

Pakistan’s main opposition parties were up in arms on Saturday after the federal government formally announced the formation of a three-member enquiry commission headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice (r) Sarmad Jalal Osmany to probe the revelations made in the so-called Panama Papers involving the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and over 200 other prominent Pakistanis.

As reported by Pakistan Today two days ago, Justice (r) Osmany would head the commission under the 1956 Inquiry Act. The other members of the commission are Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) President Hafiz Mohammad Yousaf and a police or Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official, who will be named later.

Justice (r) Osmany was appointed to the Supreme Court on Sept 19, 2008. He was removed from the bench of Supreme Court and reverted to a Sindh High Court judge. He was then appointed as Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court on August 1, 2009. He retired in October 2015.

However, the commission has become controversial on the day of its announcement, as the opposition, which has been baying for the blood of Prime Minister Nawaz’s government since the leak of the Panama Papers, was quick to object to Justice (r) Osmany’s name for the top position.

They say he’s unfit to head the crucial probe because his wife is a die-hard member of Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party.

PPP, PTI REJECT OSMANY:

Talking to reporters during a ceremony in Sukkur, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah said his party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), had expressed its reservations from the day Prime Minister Nawaz had announced that he was ordering the formation of a judicial commission to probe the suspicion of financial corruption against own children and other Pakistanis named in the Panama Papers.

“The PPP demands the government appoint Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani as head of the commission if it wants the opposition parties and the people of Pakistan to have confidence in the investigation,” said Shah.

The opposition leader also called for an international audit of the Panama Papers involving the PM’s family.

“How can Justice Osmany head the probe when his wife is a member of the accused person’s political party?” he asked.

The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also expressed its displeasure at the appointment of Justice (r) Osmany as the commission’s head.

“Osmany is respectable to us but his wife’s affiliation with PML-N warrants that the investigation should be headed by a non-controversial person,” PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters, adding that the government-announced commission would be unacceptable to all the political parties and legal fraternity.

“A parliamentary commission is also a good option,” he suggested.

To a query, the PTI vice chairman said if any of his party’s leaders were found having offshore holdings, the same law would be applied on them.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is looking after affairs of the state in the absence of the PM, chaired a meeting to discuss the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the enquiry commission.

Proposals regarding pending legislation in the pipeline were also discussed in the meeting. The meeting decided that the legislation would now be placed before the Senate after passage by the National Assembly, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance on Saturday.

Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman Khan, Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Law Barrister Zafarullah Khan and Secretary to Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad attended the meeting.

Earlier, it was learnt that the federal government had contacted five retired Supreme Court judges to head the judicial enquiry into the Panama Papers’ revelations.

Former CJPs Nasir-ul-Mulk, Tassaduq Jilani and former SC judges Sair Ali and Tanveer Ahmad Khan refused to lead the enquiry.

On April 14, the government’s legal team decided to hire the services of some renowned chartered accountancy firms like KPMG and Fergusons through an open tender under the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).

The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority is an autonomous body endowed with the responsibility of prescribing regulations and procedures for public procurements by government-owned public sector organisations.

Sources had said that if the government engages a forensic expert for the commission through PPRA, it might take six months under the PPRA rules.

Leaked confidential documents spanning over nearly 40 years that spell out the extensive use of tax havens by politicians, world leaders and celebrities to launder money and evade taxes through one of the most secretive companies the Panamian law firm Mossack Fonseca has taken the world by storm.

Many Pakistanis have also been named in their revelations.

According to documents available on the ICIJ website, the PM’s children Mariam, Hasan and Hussain “were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies”.

Mariam 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 Mariam Safdar as the ‘beneficial owner’.

According to ICIJ, “Hussain and Mariam 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.”In July 2014, the two companies were transferred to another agent.

Hasan 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.