British Government Lists Pakistan Among Top 3 Money Laundering Sources

British National Crime Agency (NCA) has identified Pakistan, Nigeria and Russia as the top source countries for money laundering in the United Kingdom, according to British media reports. The NCA report says the UK is a prime destination for foreign corrupt and politically exposed people (politicians and their families) to launder money.

NCA Report Highlights:

In its annual assessment of serious and organized crime, the NCA says: “Investment in UK property, particularly in London, continues to be an attractive mechanism to launder funds....As the UK moves towards exiting the EU in March 2019, UK-based businesses may look to increase the amount of trade they have with non-EU countries....We judge this will increase the likelihood that UK businesses will come into contact with corrupt markets, particularly in the developing world, raising the risk they will be drawn into corrupt practices.”

Here are some of the key excerpts of the UK NCA report titled "National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organized Crime 2018":

1. "The UK is a prime destination for foreign corrupt PEPs (politically exposed persons, a euphemism for politicians and their family member) to launder the proceeds of corruption. Investment in UK property, particularly in London, continues to be an attractive mechanism to launder funds. The true scale of PEPs investment in the UK is not known, however the source countries that are most commonly seen are Russia, Nigeria and Pakistan".

2. "The overseas jurisdictions that have the most enduring impact on the UK across the majority of the different money laundering threats are: Russia, China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Some of these jurisdictions have large financial sectors which also make them attractive as destinations or transit points for the proceeds of crime."

Politicians Dominate Panama Papers

Panama Papers Leak:


The NCA report says there are "professional enablers from the banking, accounting and legal world" who  facilitate the legitimization of criminal finances and are perpetuate the problem by refinancing further criminality.

In fact, there is an entire industry made up of lawyers and accountants that offers its services to help hide illicit wealth. Mossack Fonseca, the law firm that made headlines with "Panama Leaks", is just one example of companies in this industry.

Mossack Fonseca's 11.5 million leaked internal files contained information on more than 214,000 offshore entities tied to 12 current or former heads of state, 140 politicians, including Pakistan's now ex Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family.  Icelandic Prime Minister resigned voluntarily and Pakistani Prime Minister was forced out by the country's Supreme Court.

The Panama list included showbiz and sports celebrities, lawyers, entrepreneurs,  businessmen, journalists and other occupations but it was heavily dominated by politicians.

Trade Based Money Laundering (TBML):

The report singles out trade as one of the key mechanisms used in money laundering.  It says: "Trade based money laundering (TBML) is a complex global issue and a key method of money laundering impacting on the UK".

It is not just greedy politicians, unscrupulous businessmen and corrupt officials in developing countries who rely on fraudulent manipulation of trade invoices; all kinds of drug traders, terrorists and criminals also use TBML (trade-based money laundering).

John A. Cassara, former US intelligence official with expertise in money laundering, submitted written testimony for a US Congressional hearing on “Trading with the Enemy: Trade-Based Money Laundering is the Growth Industry in Terror Finance” to the Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing Of the House Financial Services Committee February 3, 2016. Here's an except from it:

"Not long after the September 11 attacks, I had a conversation with a Pakistani entrepreneur. This businessman could charitably be described as being involved in international grey markets and illicit finance. We discussed many of the subjects addressed in this hearing including trade-based money laundering, terror finance, value transfer, hawala, fictitious invoicing, and counter-valuation. At the end of the discussion, he looked at me and said, “Mr. John, don’t you know that your adversaries are transferring money and value right under your noses? But the West doesn’t see it. Your enemies are laughing at you.”"

Trade Misinvoicing:

Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) defines trade misinvoicing as "fraudulently manipulating the price, quantity, or quality of a good or service on an invoice submitted to customs" to quickly move substantial sums of money across international borders.

How does trade miscinvoicing work? Here's an example:

Let's say an exporter in Pakistan exports goods worth $1 million to a foreign country and invoices it at $500,000 through an offshore middleman.  The middleman invoices and collects $1 million from the end customer, sends $500,000 to Pakistan and deposits $500,000 in an offshore account. The result: Pakistan is deprived of the $500,000 in foreign exchange.

Similarly, imports of goods worth $1 million to Pakistan are overinvoiced at $1.5 million through an offshore middleman and the difference is kept in an overseas account. The result: Pakistan loses another $500,000 in foreign exchange. Meanwhile, the Pakistani traders and the officials facilitating misinvoicing together pocket $1 million or 50% on the two trades.  Pakistan's trade and current account deficits grow and the foreign exchange reserves are depleted, forcing Pakistan to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for yet another bailout with tough conditions.

Foreign Residency(Iqama):

Assets held by people in offshore tax havens are tracked by their country of residence, not by their citizenship, under OECD sponsored Agreement On Exchange of Information on Tax Matters. Pakistan is a signatory of this international agreement.  When Pakistan seeks information from another country under this agreement,  the nation's FBR gets only the information on asset holders who have declared Pakistan as their country of residence. Information on those Pakistanis who claim residency (iqama) in another country is not shared with Pakistani government. This loophole allows many Pakistani asset holders with iqamas in other countries to hide their assets. Many of Pakistan's top politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen hold residency visas in the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Loss of Tax Revenue:

Customs duties in developing countries often make up a huge part of the tax revenue collected by the governments. Trade Misinvoicing not only increases current account deficits but also worsen budget deficits by cutting tax receipts. Raymond Baker, author of Capitalism's Achilles Heel, has written about it as follows:

"The Pakistan government's largest source of revenues is customs duties, and therefore evasion of duties is a national pastime. Isn't there a way to tap into this major income stream, pretending to fight customs corruption and getting rich at he same time? Of course; we can hire a reputable (or disreputable, as the case maybe) inspection company, have the government pay the company about one percent fee to do price checking on imports, and get multi-million dollar bribes paid to us upon award of the contracts. Societe de Generale de Surveillance (SGS), headquartered in Switzerland, and its then subsidiary Cotecna, the biggest group in the inspection business, readily agree to this subterfuge. Letters in 1994 promised "consultancy fees", meaning kickbacks, of 6 percent and 3 percent to British Virgin Island (BVI) companies, Bomer Finance Inc. and Nassam Overseas Inc., controlled by (Benazir) Bhutto and (Asif) Zardari. Payments of $12 million were made to Swiss bank accounts of the BVI companies."

Aid in Reverse:

Some have called London the "Money Laundering Capital of the World" where corrupt leaders from developing nations use wealth looted from their people to buy expensive real estate and other assets. Private individuals and businesses from poor nations also park money in the west and other off-shore tax havens to hide their incomes and assets from the tax authorities in their countries of residence.

The multi-trillion dollar massive net outflow of money from the poor to the rich countries has been documented by the US-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI). This flow of capital has been described as "aid in reverse". It has made big headlines in Pakistan and elsewhere since the release of the Panama Papers and the Paradise Leaks which revealed true owners of offshore assets held by anonymous shell companies. Bloomberg has reported that Pakistanis alone own as much as $150 billion worth of undeclared assets offshore.

Impact on Economic Growth:

There's a direct relationship between investment and GDP. Flight of capital reduces domestic investment and depresses economic growth in poor countries. Lower tax revenues also impact spending on education, health care and infrastructure, resulting in poor socioeconomic indicators.

In Pakistan, for example, it takes investment of about 4% of GDP to grow the economy by 1%. Lower levels of investments in the country has kept its GDP growth below par relative to the rest of South Asia.  Any reduction in the outflow of capital to offshore tax havens will help boost economic growth in Pakistan to close the gap with its neighbors, particularly Bangladesh and India whose economies are both growing 1-2% faster than Pakistan's.

Summary:

UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has listed Pakistan among the top three sources of money laundering in the United Kingdom. The report has identified trade misinvoicing as a key mechanism for money laundering. It singles out politicians as the main culprits. Pakistan's exports have declined significantly since former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's PMLN party assumed power in 2013. They are down from about $25 billion in 2013-14 to about $20 billion in 2016-17. Overvaluation of the Pakistani currency is often cited as a reason for it. The other, probably more important reason, may be increasing underinvoicing of exports facilitated by the people in power. Trade misinvoicing is the largest component of illicit financial outflows from developing countries as measured by New York- based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) which tracks such flows.

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Views: 927

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 3, 2019 at 7:43am

#UK crime agency agreed to £190 million final settlement with Malik Riaz who has been serving as proxy for #Pakistan’s 2 major political families of #NawazSharif and Asif Ali #Zardari. #PPP #PMLN #moneylaundering #London #corruption #NCA https://nayadaur.tv/2019/12/money-allegedly-looted-by-sharif-recove... via @nayadaurpk

Jan Achakzai writes that the UK Crime Agency’s financial settlement with Malik Riaz, which will be given to Pakistan, is a concrete sign of recovery of looted money from Nawaz Sharif’s family through Riaz.

After months of accusations of political opponents in failing to recover any stolen asset, for the first time, the PTI government has achieved a milestone – a public relations coup, a vindication of its narrative in the form of recovered asset by the UK’s investigative authorities.

The name involved in the property transaction is none other than the younger son of three times Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif—Hassan Nawaz who sold the property in question with whopping $45 million pounds to Property Tycoon Malik Riaz at the time when Panama scandals was about to burst.

The property tycoon has been serving as proxy for Pakistan’s two major political families of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari. The UK crime agency agreed to a total of £190 million pounds of final settlement figure with the property tycoon involving the confiscation of cash laundered as well.

The UK Crime Agency will hand over the money to the government of Pakistan. It is indeed the first concrete sign of recovery of looted money from Nawaz Sharif’s family though sold to proxy owner Malik Riaz, being handed over to Pakistan.

Interestingly, the media interviews of Hassan Nawaz and Maryam Nawaz were on the record that they do not own any properties. Even in a BBC interview, Hassan Nawaz had claimed that he was renting. However, anticipating trouble in Panama and subsequent trial, Hassan Nawaz cleared his name from the title deed of the property by transferring the ownership to Malik Riaz as emerged in the latest investigation of the UK authorities.

The PTI government’s Chief Prosecutor, in charge recovering looted assets, Barrister Shehzad Akbar was instrumental in pursuing Sharif family in UK by mounting a legal challenge culminating in recovery of £190 million pounds of assets. It is a big boost to Barrister Shehzad Akbar personally but has also come as great victory for Prime Minister Imran Khan who had made it a political campaign to prove Sharifs are corrupt and that he will recover looted money from them.

This is an enormous boost to Khan’s standing among his followers who were about to lose faith in his government’s claim of Sharif’s alleged money laundering. Imran Khan must be a happy man tonight and he can now look into the eyes of his workers, supporters and voters and tell them that he has recovered Pakistan’s looted money.

But it is damaging to the Sharif family’s reputation and for PML-N itself. How come a young Hasan Nawaz can own a property so expensive in London’s posh areas? Why did he need to sell off in the run up to the Panama trial? Was it to kill any questions on the legitimacy of funds or his bonafide credentials as sole owner of the property? The Sharifs will struggle to answer these questions.

If PTI has any strategic understanding of communications, they can shred the denial narrative of Sharifs and PML-N on airwaves and digital media into pieces.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 3, 2019 at 7:55am

NCA agrees £190m settlement after frozen funds investigation

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-agrees-190m-settlem...

Settlement includes a UK property valued at approximately £50 million.

Hyde Park Place 25 Nov 19 2The National Crime Agency has agreed a settlement figure with a family that owns large property developments in Pakistan and elsewhere.

The £190 million settlement is the result of an investigation by the NCA into Malik Riaz Hussain, a Pakistani national, whose business is one of the biggest private sector employers in Pakistan.
 
In August 2019 eight account freezing orders were secured at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in connection with funds totalling around £120 million. These followed an earlier freezing order in December 2018 linked to the same investigation for £20 million. All of the account freezing orders relate to money held in UK bank accounts.
 
The NCA has accepted a settlement offer in region of £190 million which includes a UK property, 1 Hyde Park Place, London, W2 2LH, valued at approximately £50 million and all of the funds in the frozen accounts.
 
The assets will be returned to the State of Pakistan.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 11, 2019 at 5:08pm

Why is the #Pakistan media silent about #MalikRiaz whose family purchased Hyde Park #London property from a son of ex PM #NawazSharif ? This is the largest such settlement by British crime agency. #Corruption #MalikRiazSettlementStory @TRTWorld https://www.trtworld.com/asia/why-is-the-pakistani-media-silent-abo...

Malik Riaz has paid $250 million as part of a settlement with Britain’s money laundering investigating agency.
Most news anchors won’t speak his name during their programmes. A guest in a talk show was muted every time he mentioned his name. Mainstream newspapers ran cautious stories. Forget opinions and investigative features.

The story is about Malik Riaz, a Pakistani real estate tycoon, who just paid $250 million in a settlement and officials don’t want to discuss it.

On December 3, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said it had reached a settlement with Riaz and his family as part of a year-long fraud investigation.

The money, which was confiscated from bank accounts and an expensive London mansion overlooking Hyde Park, will be transferred to the Pakistani government, the NCA said.

Riaz’s family had purchased the Hyde Park property from Hassan Nawaz, a son of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who himself faces a corruption enquiry.

This is the largest such settlement since the NCA’s mandate was updated two years ago to investigate money trail of people who might have acquired wealth from illegal means.

Bahria Town, Riaz’s company, is perhaps the largest real estate developer in Pakistan. He has built housing complexes, apartment buildings and golf courses in lavish developments that come with miniature copies of the Pyramids and amusement parks.

The Pakistan government has refused to divulge details about the settlement, saying it has been reached under a confidentiality agreement.

Riaz himself tried to spin the story by saying he’s simply bringing back money kept in foreign accounts, saying he has sold the property.

He didn’t say that the NCA was investigated him and the assets had been confiscated.

In August, the NCA froze bank accounts containing more than $150 million, which were suspected to be profits linked to kickbacks and bribes. Those accounts belonged to Malik Riaz.

Earlier this year, Riaz agreed to pay the Pakistani state around $2 billion to settle a case, which involved the illegal occupation of thousands of acres of land in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi.

At the time, people had questioned how a businessman with little exposure to foreign markets had come to acquire such vast wealth in a country, which has time and again approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for bailouts.

“No one is developing real estate property like he does. Even his critics would want to go and live in his housing projects,” says a Karachi-based builder, who asked not to be named.

“There is an increasing dearth of homes in cities while the population is expanding rapidly. Young people are moving out of their parents’ home, siblings who once lived together in combined families, now want their own places. Malik Riaz has simply tapped this market on a grand scale.”

But Bahria Town faces accusations of manipulating land records and forcibly evicting people from their villages on the city outskirts to make way for its projects.

Riaz, a major advertising spender, has an outsized influence over media houses, which block coverage critical of the real estate tycoon.

“You can report on powerful military and extension issues of its commander but not Malik Riaz. You can imagine his influence,” a reporter told TRT World.

Bahria Town’s projects, which include thousands of residential and commercial properties, have also become a way for high-yield chasing investors to make quick money.

Thousands flocked to the Bahria Town offices when he announced a new project, trying to buy property documents, which are later sold at many times their face value on the underground market.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 14, 2020 at 10:59am
#WorldBank payouts to 22  developing nations during 1990-2010 were followed by a jump in their rulers' deposits in overseas heaven. #Oil price increases are followed by a spike in deposits held by rulers in financial havens.  #corruption #MoneyLaundering  https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/02/13/the-worl...
When autocratic, oil-rich nations enjoy a windfall from higher crude prices, where does the money go? One place to look is Swiss bank accounts. Sure enough, an increase in oil prices is followed by a spike in deposits held by these countries in financial havens, according to a 2017 paper by Jorgen Juel Andersen of bi Norwegian Business School, Niels Johannesen of the University of Copenhagen and their co-authors.
When Mr Johannesen presented this result at the World Bank in 2015, the audience included Bob Rijkers, a member of the bank’s research group. The two of them joined forces with Mr Andersen to investigate if something similar happened after another kind of windfall: infusions of aid from foreign donors. Their conclusion was dispiriting. World Bank payouts to 22 aid-dependent countries during 1990-2010 were followed by a jump in their deposits in foreign financial havens. The leaks averaged about 5% of the bank’s aid to these countries.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 20, 2020 at 4:45pm

A sample of 29 transactions in #FinCENFiles that shows how suspicious transfers (#moneylaundering) to and from #Pakistan
Received
$ 1,942,560
Sent
$ 452,000
Follow the Money
* Data represents a fraction of the total transactions found in the FinCEN files. https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/what-is-the-fincen...

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1307821094192033792?s=20

The data in the FinCEN Files transactions map contains information on more than $35 billion in transactions dated from 2000-2017 that were flagged by financial institutions as suspicious to United States authorities. The map only displays cases where sufficient details about both the originator and beneficiary banks were available, and is designed to illustrate how potentially dirty money flows from country to country around the world, via U.S.-based banks. The data in this map represents a fraction of the more than $2 trillion worth of transactions found in the FinCEN Files.

This map also provides information about the U.S.-based “correspondent” banks that allow financial institutions in more than 150 countries and territories to process payments in U.S. dollars.

The FinCEN Files is a cache of financial intelligence reports that reveals the role of global banks in industrial-scale money laundering – and the bloodshed and suffering that flow in its wake.

The records include more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports filed by nearly 90 financial institutions to the United States’ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN. The documents were shared by BuzzFeed News with ICIJ and 108 media partners in 88 countries and include information on more than $2 trillion in transactions dated from 1999-2017 that had been flagged by the banks as suspicious.

The reports reflect the private concerns of global bank money-laundering compliance officers. The SARs include a narrative along with attached spreadsheets of sometimes hundreds of lines of raw transaction data.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 21, 2020 at 7:28am

Between 2010 and 2017, a number of Indian banks, irrespective of ownership – public, private and foreign -- helped facilitate transactions red-flagged by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for suspected money laundering, terrorism, drug dealing and financial fraud, latest leaks suggest.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/fincen-files-almo...

International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) obtained the top-secret Suspicious Activity Reports or SARs, worth more than $2 trillion globally. These transactions are not outright evidence of frauds or proof of nefarious activities, but are red-flagged by the US authority as suspicious.


While the data dump is available on the organisation’s website, so far it has meticulously tracked down 18,153 transactions totaling $35 billion, in which links between both sending and beneficiary banks have been established. The transactions were done between 2000 and 2017.

In case of India, the FinCEN files so far have established sender-receiver connections for 406 transactions involving all major banks, including the country's largest, State Bank of India.

According to the leaks Indian banks received $482,181,226 from outside the country and transferred from India $406,278,962. These transactions were red flagged to the US authorities.

A few large transactions are worth mentioning here.

Standard Chartered Bank, in a single transaction, transferred Merrill Lynch Bank Suisse Sa $8,173,378 on Jul 9, 2011. Bank of India received $119,548,135 in 19 transactions from DBS Bank between Nov 4, 2015 and Apr 14, 2016.

DBS Bank sent Allahabad Bank $144,248,998 through 26 transactions, between Nov 6, 2015 and Feb 23, 2016. Singapore-headquartered DBS also sent $162,381,261 to Indian Overseas Bank through 21 transactions done between Nov 3, 2015 and Apr 14, 2016.

Deutsche Bank AG sent its local Indian arm Deutsche Bank in India $53,520,418 in two transactions between Oct 25, 2012 and Nov 26, 2012.

India’s HDFC Bank sent Standard Chartered Bank $327,999,890 through 11 transactions between Sep 24, 2012 and Feb 15, 2013.

IndusInd Bank transferred HSBC $8,260,868 between Jun 13, 2008 and Nov 7, 2012 in 55 transactions. State Bank of India (SBI) transferred $5,791,055 to DNB Nor Bank Asa in 9 transactions between Jan 25, 2012 and Oct 9, 2012. SBI received $ 23,325,000 from Rak Bank through 6 transactions done between Mar 2, 2014 and Mar 23, 2014.

State owned Canara Bank received $ 2,761,523 from National Bk of Ras Al Khaimah Psc between Jul 24, 2013 and Nov 7, 2013 through 20 transactions. Bank of India received $11,214,476 from Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in 16 transactions between Jan 13, 2010 and Dec 23, 2010.

The latest transactions traced was where DBS Bank transferred $1,878,000 to Bank of Baroda between Jul 5, 2016 and Jul 5, 2016 in three transactions.

Even a small bank such as Tamilnad Mercantile Bank received $185,626 from Standard Chartered Bank between Dec 9, 2010 and Dec 24, 2010 in three transactions.

So far, ICJI has named these Indian banks in the dubious transactions -- State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Indusind Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Karur Vysya Bank, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Standard Chartered Bank (India operations), Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Deutsche Bank (India operations), UCO Bank, Karnataka Bank, RBS, Andhra Bank, and Vijaya Bank.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 22, 2020 at 8:29pm

6 #Pakistan #banks in #FinCENLeaks. Allied Bank 12 transactions worth over $1 million; UBL had 8 transactions $399,620; Habib Metro 2 transactions $74,980; Bank Alfalah 3 transactions flagged, receiving $99,480 and sending $452,000, etc. #moneylaundering https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/09/21/six-pakistani-banks-...

Six Pakistani banks have been named in an investigation on the role global banks play in money laundering by Buzzfeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), for 29 suspicious transactions close to $2.5 million.

The banks named are Allied Bank, United Bank (UBL), Habib Metropolitan Bank, Bank Alfalah, Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan, and Habib Bank (HBL). All the suspicious transactions took place in 2011 and 2012.

Buzzfeed News had shared with ICIJ more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports, or SARs, filed by global banks to the U.S. Treasury Department’s intelligence unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN.

According to the investigation, global banks moved more than $2 trillion between 1999 and 2017 in suspicious payments, and flagged bank clients in more than 170 countries who were identified as being involved in potentially illicit transactions.

Banks file SARs when they believe a client is using services for potential criminal activity, though the filing in itself does not require a bank to stop doing business with a client.

According to the data revealed by ICIJ, 29 such suspicious transactions to and from Pakistan were flagged. Of those, the ‘received’ transactions amounted to $1,942,560, while the ‘sent’ transaction was $452,000.

Allied Bank had 12 suspicious transactions flagged, receiving $1,001170; UBL had eight transactions flagged, receiving $399,620; Habib Metro had two transactions flagged, receiving $74,980; Bank Alfalah had three transactions flagged, receiving $99,480 and sending $452,000; Standard Chartered had four transactions flagged, receiving $199,860; and HBL had one transaction flagged, receiving $167,450.

Out of the 29 transactions, Standard Chartered filed 28 SARs with FinCEN, while The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., filed one. All of these transactions took place between September and December 2012, except for one transaction that took place in November 2011.

Comment by Riaz Haq on October 21, 2020 at 8:00am

#TransparencyInternational #UK Head : “Foreign politicians with convictions relating to corruption should not enjoy impunity in Britain. Nor should their unexplained wealth, stashed in luxury London properties, fall out of the reach of law enforcement" https://www.ft.com/content/bef9565a-59a4-4290-8b29-f3866db21a84



Mr Sharif “has been responsible for pillaging the state and I trust that you will be supportive of our efforts to bring those responsible for corruption to account”, Mr Khan’s adviser, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, wrote to Ms Patel on October 5.

After the Panama Papers revealed hidden assets belonging to Mr Sharif’s family, he resigned as prime minister in 2017. The following year a Pakistan court sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment for corruption. He has claimed that this and other corruption cases against him are politically motivated.


In November 2019 he flew to London after the Pakistan authorities granted him leave to travel abroad for eight weeks to seek treatment for various conditions. He sought an extension of his temporary release but the Pakistan authorities refused on the grounds that he had offered inadequate medical evidence and ordered Mr Sharif to return home.



According to records submitted to the Pakistan authorities, he has given as his London address the very flat on London’s opulent Park Lane that led to his downfall. His family’s ownership of the flat was exposed by the leak of secret files from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The letter to Ms Patel urges her to use her “extensive powers” to deport Mr Sharif, arguing she is “duty bound” to do so. It cites immigration rules that criminals sentenced to four years or more must be refused leave to remain in the UK. A Pakistan court has issued a warrant for Mr Sharif’s arrest, the letter adds.

A Pakistan official said the UK had not yet formally responded. The Home Office declined to comment.

“Foreign politicians with convictions relating to corruption should not enjoy impunity in Britain. Nor should their unexplained wealth, stashed in luxury London properties, fall out of the reach of law enforcement,” said Daniel Bruce, head of Transparency International UK.

“The UK government should work constructively with democratic countries such as Pakistan to uphold the rule of law. Action should also be taken to seize and return illicit assets held here in Britain in order to deliver justice for the victims of corruption. Failure to act on cases such as this, earns the UK an unwelcome reputation as a safe haven for dirty money.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 1, 2020 at 10:15am

This is Hard Talk not Capital Talk, Ishaq Dar gets butchered on #Pakistani Twitter. Ex-finance minister feels the heat in #BBC interview with Pakistani trolls ready to pounce. #IshaqDar #Pakistan #PMLN #NawazSharif #Corruption | The Express Tribune


https://tribune.com.pk/story/2274249/this-is-hardtalk-not-capital-t...


BBC journalist Stephen Sackur is known for grilling his guests on his show 'HardTalk and former finance minister Ishaq Dar was no exception as he was posed with hardhitting questions.

Soon after the interview was aired snippets were widely shared on Pakistani Twitter Dar answering Sackur's questions with #IshaqDar and #StephenSackur becoming the top trends in the country.

One Twitter user said that Dar expected the interview be like Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir's 'Capital Talk', however, he the PML-N leader was in for a rude awakening.

Journalist Shiffa Yousafzai drew attention to Sackur telling the former minister that "Nawaz Sharif worked hand in glove with Zia ul Haq and now the PML-N is complaining about military interference in politics".

Yousafzai added that the journalist interviewing PML-N vice-president would be "interesting"

Even the BBC journalist himself wrote on his Twitter handle that his interview had caused quite a stir in Pakistan.

The interview

Dar said PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is struggling for democracy and supremacy of the parliament in Pakistan and the current government is a form of 'judicial martial law'.

The now absconding former minister said he does not accuse the army, as an institution, of undermining the democratic process in Pakistan but stated that "it is the will and plan of some people, the same people who enforce martial law in Pakistan".

When Dar was asked if the army or the army chief were undermining democracy, he said that the PML-N is not alone and international reports also have said the same. "I am not talking about the entire institution, we need to differentiate. These are the wishes and plans of certain people, the same people who enforce martial law in Pakistan."

"We are saying that if the elections were rigged, and this has now been proven, without doubt, someone is planning the entire thing. This is not us saying it, but the interior minister of Pakistan said that if Nawaz Sharif did not have issues with the institutions and the deep state, he would have become prime minister for the fourth time."

When asked if he had come to London seeking refuge as he is an absconder in Pakistan, the former finance minister said corruption allegations have been used repeatedly in the country's history and in the present circumstances, the current government is a "judicial martial law".

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 1, 2020 at 6:19pm

Sackur: It is quite clear that he (Nawaz Sharif) is a convicted criminal...he (Nawaz Sharif) was given 10 years' sentence which was later reduced to 7 years... Nawaz Sharif is London on medical grounds as are you...you are demanding an early election and an end to Imran Khan's government...what credibility do you have with the people of Pakistan?

Dar: What credibility does Imran Khan have....it was a rigged election (in 2018)....a stolen election...Pakistan Human Rights commission said so"

Sackur: EU (election) monitors reported some concerns about not just one party but several different parties..but they said the result was credible....Imran Khan's victory was credible.


https://youtu.be/7X4Nv6o4TOI

Fact: Ishaq Dar is quite competent in Money Laundering. He has been doing it for Nawaz Sharif for decades. He testified before a magistrate on April 25, 2000 that Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as cover for money laundering during the late 1990s.

https://www.dawn.com/news/848873/sharifs-used-paper-mill-to-whiten-...

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    Blog Posts

    Biden's Gaza Ceasefire Veto Defies American Public Opinion

    Aaron Bushnell, an active serviceman in the United States Air Force, burned himself to death in front of the Israeli Embassy in protest against the US policy in Gaza. Before setting himself on fire in what he called an "extreme act of protest", he said he would "no longer be complicit in genocide". Polls show that the vast majority (63%) of Americans want an immediate end to the carnage being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.  …

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on February 27, 2024 at 5:30pm

    Pakistan Elections: Imran Khan's Supporters Skillfully Used Tech to Defy Powerful Military

    Independent candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) party emerged as the largest single block with 93 seats in the nation's parliament in the general elections held on February 8, 2024.  This feat was accomplished in spite of huge obstacles thrown in front of the PTI's top leader Imran Khan and his party leaders and supporters by Pakistan's powerful military…

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on February 16, 2024 at 9:22pm — 1 Comment

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