- Politicising a legal issue
That numerous Pakistanis have bought properties in various countries, particularly in UAE and Britain, is widely known. Those involved include investors, well-to-do businessmen, retired generals like Musharraf and politicians. The claims of funds involved have ranged from Rs600 billion to $200 billion. How much of the capital invested was taken out of the country after payment of taxes and how much comprised black money was never investigated.
It is a well-known fact that a number of politicians from every major party own assets abroad. The PTI is however using the issue only as a handle to malign its opponents. Money laundering is a crime and should have been taken as such instead of trying to use it for point scoring against political opponents.
The Supreme Court took a suo motu notice of the issue of siphoning off money without payment of taxes in February this year. One had expected that the new government would provide the court the much needed help. The PTI has however failed to gather necessary evidence, meanwhile concentrating on politicising the issue.
An overzealous NAB has acted as usual as an instrument of the ruling party rather than an independent accountability body. The Nab made itself a laughing stock when it acted on a fake news accusing Nawaz Sharif of money laundering of $4.9 billion to India. The NAB’s partiality is so apparent that even the SC was forced to reprimand it for running the news on the television before serving a notice to a person. The chief justice remarked that the anti-graft body did not have the authority to declare someone a convict until the charges were proved.
There is more hype and sensationalism than meaningful probe under the prime minister’s special advisor Shahzad Akbar who says he has traced 10,000 properties of Pakistanis in UK and UAE. What were needed were solid proofs about how many of these were purchased with black money. In the absence of the relevant information the attorney general was forced to tell the court that the government could not arrest these people under the law.
