'Rs7b recouped from offshore offenders'

Minister says govt to take action against 242 other people whose names figured in Panama Papers

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Finance Hammad Azhar on Monday told the Senate that Rs7 billion have been recovered from people whose names figured in the Panama Papers, a leaked trove of documents.

“There was data of 444 persons who were named in the Panama Papers. No action was taken against 242 of them. However, the government is now going to start a legal action against these 242 individuals as it is completing the missing data,” he said.

He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is setting up six cells which will work on offshore accounts.

“Issuing harsh statements [against the government] will not make someone great. We have decided that we shall increase the tax net,” he said in response to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahidullah Khan, who strongly criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government.

Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan said a poor country was plundered in the name of democracy by the previous governments including that of the PML-N.

“Even an airplane was stolen in this country when the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was facing a loss of Rs200 billon. The new airport of Islamabad was inaugurated in 2018 instead of 2013. Highest quantities of gas were stolen in Lahore. Who was ruling Lahore [then]?” he asked Khan.

Senator Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan People Party (PPP) presented a bill seeking amendment in the law governing the Exit Control List (ECL). The chairman sent the bill to relevant standing committee.

Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi, however, raised objection to the amendment bill and said the present process of placing a name on the no-fly list was appropriate.

Earlier, criticising the PM’s foreign visits, Mushahidullah Khan said the world had not seen “such a beggar who tells people in advance where he is going to beg”.  He said good governance needs wisdom.

Khan said the recent three-day sit-ins in the wake of the apex court’s October 31 verdict inflicted a loss of Rs150 billion, adding that this estimation gave an idea of the losses Pakistan incurred due to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) 2014 sit-in that continued for 126 days.

He said the present government had to enter into an agreement with a party which the PTI earlier staged a sit-in with. “These people [TLP] were your friends till yesterday but today they are your foes. When sit-ins were staged in the past, [PTI’s] Shah Mehmood Qureshi used to go and sit with them.”

The Senate later adjourned till Wednesday afternoon.