LAHORE – The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has demanded that Panama leaks scandal should be probed under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
The SCBA said that the UNCAC specifically deals with corruption and money laundering issues in many countries and its help could only be viable and practical, said a press release issued here on Thursday.
The SCBA noted that the leaked Panama papers have revealed corruption at the highest level in Pakistan while a judicial or an inquiry commission or a parliamentary body could not collect relevant evidence outside boundaries of Pakistan and seeking formation of a domestic commission would be a futile exercise.
“In such cases, the name of the beneficiary or the source of funds for acquisition of assets or offshore properties is carefully hidden, hence, the biggest challenge is to unearth the evidence,” it said.
It added that the government of Pakistan could initiate the process and show its intention to get the assistance of the UNCAC by promulgating an ordinance authorizing the chief justice to nominate a national task force to probe the matter.
It further said that this national task force may employ financial investigators, accountants, members of law enforcing agencies, legal or other experts and a well-known forensic institution to probe the matter, adding that the force shall publish and shall make public its findings and conclusions itself without any reference to the government of Pakistan.
This task force should have available the services of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the purposes of implementing any directions of the national task force.
