Names of several Pakistanis are said to be on the Pandora Papers that a consortium of investigative journalists is going to release on Sunday.

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced on Saturday that it was going to release “our most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet.”

ICIJ members had worked on 2016 Panama Papers that shook capitals of several countries and lead to the downfall of governments, including that of Nawaz Sharif.

The PandoraPapers would be released at 9:30pm on Sunday Pakistan standard time, according to an ICIJ tweet.

The expose “features reporting from more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries across the globe,” the ICIJ tweet said.

Journalist Umar Cheema who is one of the 600 journalists told Geo TV that several Pakistani names were on the Pandora Papers.

“Pakistani people whose name are on [Pandora Papers] number more than [those whose names were on] the Panama Paper,” Cheema said.

“The names are kind of interesting, but you will have to wait for another 24 hours,” he said.

Cheema suggested that the ICIJ journalists had worked on the Pandora Papers for two years. “we waited for two years,” he said.

With 11.9 million documents, Pandora Papers are bigger than the Panama Papers, which were a leak of 11.5 million confidential documents.

The Pandora Papers also have international significance. German journalists Benedikt Strunz has said “something huge is coming up!”

Meanwhile, rumour mills have started working overtime in Pakistan with some Twitter user claiming offshore companies linked with a key person have been revealed. However, sources say the claims were just a repeat of old allegations and had little to do with Pandora Papers.



source https://www.samaa.tv/news/2021/10/bigger-than-panama-several-pakistani-names-on-upcoming-pandora-papers/