1) Having an off-shore company/asset is not a crime. PERIOD! Nor moral neither ethical.
2) having assets beyond your means is a crime and should be treated as a crime and person as a suspect.
3) Panama leaks have provided info about leaders having off-shore companies, lets leave others out and talk about Pakistan, Sharifs, Tareens and others are businessmen, they may need to have these companies for operations, JVs, trading or other business activities...
So leave it there..
4) The real questions should be:
A) Provide the bank transaction history for such transaction.
B) linking it with tax paid that particular year again can be misleading, cause tax is paid on profits...that is why we have PBT and PAT terms in Income statement...and if Pakistan didn't have wealth tax imposed those days...then...???
More than anything I would question why did he hide it initially or why did his party lie at first place?
President Bill Clinton was impeached not becuz he had a affair with Monica Lewoinski but because he lied to the house.
Was he in politics at that time? As per the Jang group journo who broke this story, IK declared his London flat in 90s, and consequent money trial after the sale in 2002 when he purchased Bani Gala.
So much for all the brouhaha, neither the company nor the flat exists anymore.
The irony is that he opened the offshore account to transfer his halal earned money from UK to Pakistan whereas Sharif family opened offshore company to laundered Pakistan treasury;s money to UK.
He'll be fine, in fact he'll come out stronger from this as he will be able to present all the paper trial of his UK flat, selling of that flat and transfer of money to Pakistan to purchase Bani Gala (or pay back Jemima) whereas NS has no paper trial to back as money was laundered from Pakistan.
IK can easily say that he avoided the UK Capital Gain Tax buy selling his property and putting it in off shore company. He avoided tax as he was not a British citizen.
I totally second that IK will come out even stronger when he presents the audit/paper trail of his transactions. That will fizzle out detractors whole pyramid that has been built to defend Once Upon a Time (Almost) Ameerul Momineen.
Paper trail of NS is there; many high ranking banking officials (including xxxxxx CEO Faysal Bank in 1990's even now a blue eyed boy of NS who is pitching him to be Governor of SBP) know a lot about transactions that were made. I can name several bankers (including myself as I had been with a global bank in Singapore as Corp Head in late 1990s - to mid 2000) who had been privy to those transactions but that will not help the cause as it's the Information Order that creates and manages the perception.
Whoever can win at this game and has more money to spend will win this game - truth can be buried in today's Information Order that is prevalent in today's world! Sad - but true!
Imran made a technical mistake, nevertheless. He waited too long to bring this info out. Now he provided a diversion to media and opponent parties. The point is not that Imran will survive this or not. He will, no doubt. Unfortunately, now the focus will be a shifted to him, and all other luteray will use this diversion to bury the actual issue under the ground.
do we have proof that it was haram money by sharif? As someone else pointed out, nothing will come out of this. I don't think shareefs were involved in musharraf's NAB, but I still fault him for bowing to american pressure and letting go of all the hard work in getting the cases prosecuted in the swiss court. Now, only allah will give justice as it seems that every big fish is unblemished in Pakistan.
Imran made a technical mistake, nevertheless. He waited too long to bring this info out. Now he provided a diversion to media and opponent parties. The point is not that Imran will survive this or not. He will, no doubt. Unfortunately, now the focus will be a shifted to him, and all other luteray will use this diversion to bury the actual issue under the ground.
Typical imran. He should have stayed in charity where he is doing a good job with Shaukat khanum. He bamboozled himself in the dharna by first saying he is against army then asking ISI to be part of commission to taliban meray log to this. If shareefs weren't this stupid then imran would be in so much trouble.
Was he in politics at that time? As per the Jang group journo who broke this story, IK declared his London flat in 90s, and consequent money trial after the sale in 2002 when he purchased Bani Gala.
So much for all the brouhaha, neither the company nor the flat exists anymore.
The irony is that he opened the offshore account to transfer his halal earned money from UK to Pakistan whereas Sharif family opened offshore company to laundered Pakistan treasury;s money to UK.
Um..who said about revealing it in 1983 DUH! Its when this whole offshore company saga started after panama leaks.
Just few days back he had said that people make offshore companies when they have something illegal to hide. So basically he is getting tripped over his own quotes.
And I just read some PTI leaders called journalists who broke the story as "prostitutes". Well, thats certainly going to help.
Again, I really dont care much about offshore companies cuz i'm not convinced its any illegal. But he should have explained it right after panama papers got unveiled.
Imran made a technical mistake, nevertheless. He waited too long to bring this info out. Now he provided a diversion to media and opponent parties. The point is not that Imran will survive this or not. He will, no doubt. Unfortunately, now the focus will be a shifted to him, and all other luteray will use this diversion to bury the actual issue under the ground.
This...
Month ago, when Nawaz Sharif rushed to UK to take advice from Zardari about the Panama leaks and the crisis, i wrote dialogue between the two where Zardari in the end telling NS to not worry, IK is there..he ll help you out" and thats what has happened so far!!!
do we have proof that it was haram money by sharif? As someone else pointed out, nothing will come out of this. I don't think shareefs were involved in musharraf's NAB, but I still fault him for bowing to american pressure and letting go of all the hard work in getting the cases prosecuted in the swiss court. Now, only allah will give justice as it seems that every big fish is unblemished in Pakistan.
Oh come on man. You do know that Mayfair is one the most expensive residential areas on PLANET EARTH. So how on earth underaged - 14/16 year old - Hussain and Maryam got that kind of money to buy the flats when their parents were only paying Rs500 in tax?
As per their claim, even there business was in loss. So where did they get the billions and how did those billions got out of the country? Where's the money trial?
Um..who said about revealing it in 1983 DUH! *Its when this whole offshore company saga started after panama leaks. *
Just few days back he had said that people make offshore companies when they have something illegal to hide. So basically he is getting tripped over his own quotes.
And I just read some PTI leaders called journalists who broke the story as "prostitutes". Well, thats certainly going to help.
Again, I really dont care much about offshore companies cuz i'm not convinced its any illegal. But he should have explained it right after panama papers got unveiled.
Errr that's because neither the company nor the flat exists any more. It took PMLN sponsored media group a whole month to dig up this dead horse. Maybe he was stupid enough to not know that PMLN is expert at digging up "garhey murdey" so he better clear this up just like he cleared up SKMH off shore accounts.
He's actually openly admitting that he *avoided *the British Capital Gains Tax on selling of property as he was not a UK citizen. Let's not blow this out of proportion to let the real thieves go free. IK brought his money from UK to Pakistan with proper money trail whereas likes of NS took Pakistan's money to UK with no record of money trail whatsoever.
Let's not confuse technical imperfections with blatant crimes.
Imran made a technical mistake, nevertheless. He waited too long to bring this info out. Now he provided a diversion to media and opponent parties. The point is not that Imran will survive this or not. He will, no doubt. Unfortunately, now the focus will be a shifted to him, and all other luteray will use this diversion to bury the actual issue under the ground.
Isn't this what's been happening since last month? The focus is all on IK. From his children to SKMH to 'yahoodi lobby' to Army lobby....it's all IK versus good old 90s PMLN.
Even if you read that dear diary type thread opened by PMLN fan, all he talks about is Imran to divert the focus from Sharif family.
I can't believe he was celebrating oh look Gov played a master-stroke by asking for SC commission HA HA HA PMLN won, and only today the CJP rejected the commission with such strong feedback and he doesn't want acknowledge some other faces with eggs on their face, including his own.
The only reason IK would be laughed at because, he said, " only reason anyone have off-shore company is when they want to hide their illegal money and avoid taxes".
But that was said by Nawaz Sharif
That is not a crime at all! But our media made it look like crime... Our media is to be blamed, 90% of anchors have no idea what off-shore companies are, why business men have them...and how to investigate them.
Probably they did not know intricate details in between. If they had started their questions "how did money get there in first place" then NS and cronies could've been in trouble, but there questions were all over the place except the target.
