ISLAMABAD: Only about 58 people have so far responded to the notices issued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to the owners of offshore companies.
Early this month, the FBR issued notices to around 400 people, including three children of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – Husain Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz and Maryam Nawaz, whose names appeared in the Panama Papers. The PM’s children have not yet responded to the FBR notices.
In politicians, only PTI’s Aleem Khan responded to the notice and admitted that he owns an offshore company, adding, “My offshore company has also been shown in his wealth tax statements already submitted to the Board.”
The country’s top revenue authority issued the notices under sections of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 dealing with verification of the information with the FBR database. The notices were issued by the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation to obtain official versions/verifications of all Pakistani individuals/companies, whose names appeared in the papers released by ICIJ regarding the ownership of offshore enterprises.
