The international tour of Pakistani money now docks in the Bahamas, another sunny destination for the rich and famous to hide money of this Caribbean cruise. Like the previous papers, numerous Pakistani owners and beneficiaries of offshore companies in tax havens have come to light, but in contrast to the frenzied response to the Panama papers, the Bahamas have barely created a ripple.
With India, Kashmir and CPEC on the line, most politicians would claim they have bigger fish to fry. While that may be true, perhaps the most obvious reason for the relative quiet around the papers is the fact that no major political player has been implicated. A few ex-senators, several businessmen, and the mother-in-law of the Punjab’s Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, have been mentioned; but for an opposition feasting on the involvement of the Prime Minister’s immediate family, these are mere scraps. Nawaz Sharif was always the prime target, and he was already in the crosshairs before the Bahamas leaks came to light.
This lack of interest from the opposition and the media in the matter indicates a politically inspired approach to the leaks – as opposed to one that is fundamentally against the use of offshore companies to avoid taxes - and hence opens the opposition, especially the zealous Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) to criticism for principle inconsistency.
Yet the opposition’s outrage on the previous leaks didn’t achieve anything substantive either. The government effectively managed to stonewall most avenues of investigation, and continues to bog down discussion in public forums – such as the Parliament. Perhaps the opposition is wary of expending energy where there is no use.
The government however, is not taking any chance; having learned from its mistakes the last time around, Finance M+inister Ishaq Dar has quietly directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to launch an investigation into the offshore accounts of individuals and companies mentioned in the Bahamas leaks.
In the recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, the heads of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) all expressed their inability to investigate the Panama papers under existing laws. Only the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had opened up an investigation channel into the matter – and that too a half-hearted one. It is unreasonable to expect that without a public furore matching Panama, these bodies will undertake the responsibility of investigating the Bahamas leaks.