‘No action against cabinet members named in Pandora Papers till found guilty’: Fawad Chaudhry

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday said the federal cabinet members, whose names appeared in the Pandora Papers, would not be removed from their positions unless proven guilty.

“Action will be taken once they are proven guilty,” said the minister.

Chaudhry criticised the owners of media houses and said, “I see the photos of [Finance Minister] Shaukat Tarin and [Industries Minister] Khusro Bakhtiar being aired on TV channels, but not of media house owners, who have also been named as owners of offshore companies.”

Prime Minis­ter (PM) Imran Khan on Monday formed a high-powered cell to investigate the 700 Pakistanis named in the Pandora Papers, including federal cabinet members, politicians, retired generals, owners of media houses, and others in establishing offshore companies.

The cell will categorise the named individuals into four groups: those who have declared their offshore companies in Pakistan; those who have not declared their companies here and committed tax evasion; those who used their companies for money laundering and individuals who have not shown their offshore companies as part of the assets owned by them while declaring their wealth, reports Dawn.