FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of setting up of offshore companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands by 435 Pakistani citizens, Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) former Justice Javed Iqbal Tuesday issued directives to the Bureau to initiate an inquiry into the matter on immediate basis.

An official said the NAB chairman took notice of offshore companies established by Pakistanis at Panama and the British Virgin Islands and asked the NAB’s relevant department to initiate an inquiry in this regard, besides obtaining record from relevant departments including Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) regarding these companies.

He said that 435 people who set up offshore companies also include former Chairman Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) Abdullah Yousaf and Shahid Abdullah, Shayan Abdullah, Usman Yousaf, Amer Abdullah and Aleem Khan.

In April last year, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed the names of those Pakistani politicians, businessmen, bankers and a serving high court judge and a retired judge, who allegedly owned offshore companies.

Following the Panama Papers revelation by the ICIJ, neither NAB nor FIA investigated the matter due to which political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Awami Muslim League (AML) approached the Supreme Court for a proper investigation into the matter.

The Supreme Court took up the case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family. The apex court constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate the Sharifs, which led to Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification as prime minister.

Meanwhile, the NAB chairman issued directives to its all regional offices to submit applications in accountability courts for early hearing of 1,138 corruption references under trial in the anti-graft courts in the country.

An official of the NAB said the NAB chairman while chairing a meeting reviewed the performance of the Bureau and issued directives to file an application in the anti-graft court for early hearing of references under trial in the courts to recover Rs900 billion from corrupt elements and bring them to justice as per law.

He said that currently 1,138 references are under trial in respective accountability courts, of which 347 are of NAB Lahore, 275 references of NAB Karachi, 185 references of NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 97 references of NAB Balochistan, 171 references of NAB Rawalpindi, 34 references of NAB Multan and 29 references of NAB Sukkur.

He said that the chairman also asked regional offices to inform the headquarters for how long 499 inquiries and 287 investigations have been under process in different offices and why these inquiries and investigations are not completed within the prescribed timeframe of 10 months as per NAB’s standard operation procedure (SOP).

The NAB chairman asked why references had not been filed in the respective accountability courts after completion of investigations.