ISLAMABAD – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – a global union which exposed ownership of offshore companies by publishing Panama Papers – has clarified that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s name was mistakenly appeared in panama Papers due to editing error.
“Nawaz Sharif’s name doesn’t appear in original documents of Panama Papers, however a sentence included in Panama Papers story implied as if Pakistani Prime Minister directly controls the offshore companies,” a statement read.
In its earlier stories titled “Panama Papers The Power Players” and “Giant Leak of Offshore Financial Records Exposes Global Array of Crime and Corruption”, the ICIJ had declared that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif controls offshore companies.
However, the ICIJ has now issued a clarification reading: “Due to an editing error, a sentence in an earlier version of this story implied that the prime minister of Pakistan controlled an offshore company that appeared in the Panama Papers. It is his children who control the offshore companies.”
The development apparently took place after Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) lawmaker Daniyal Aziz wrote a complaint to the ICIJ about inaccuracies and discrepancies in its reports about Nawaz Sharif. As of April 21, the ICIJ has updated the information about offshore companies of Nawaz Sharif’s sons, which now states that Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz control the offshore companies.
The leak of 11 million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca identified links between many political and business leaders around the world and offshore companies and accounts. Among them was the Pakistan prime minister’s family.
