This is reference revelations by “Panama Papers”, about involvement of thousands in organized money transfers and investments through offshore companies, which may qualify either as money laundering, tax evasion or technically sugar coated crimes. Just like Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion, those aspiring to hold elected or paid public office and members of their family must be above board.
Water finds its own level and flow, so does money, black or white, in a capitalist system, finding ways to cross international borders with help of legal tax evading experts such as Mossack Fonseca. Even in our own religion no member of Prophet’s(PBUH) family or those who succeeded him like Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Ali, Hazrat Umar could ever be accused of any conflicts of interest. Quaid e Azam gave up his lucrative legal practice in 1944, to devote all his energies to his political struggle and avoid any semblance of conflict of interest. Politics can either be a public service or an abuse of power with disastrous consequences for likes of Marcos etc.
What may be legal, like consensual extra marital relations between consenting adults is considered unethical and unacceptable for those holding public office in Europe, America and developed world. People at helm of affairs, or those heading sensitive security institutions, or in top civil bureaucracy are expected not to get gifts from foreign governments, heads of state, traders and others because this falls under category of corrupt practices. Involvement in tax evasion schemes by those holding public offices of importance can sound death knell for their national economies.
ALI MALIK,
Lahore, April 5.