ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has no moral justification to do politics after he admitted to have formed an Offshore Company in the past.
In his address at a new conference in Islamabad on Saturday, the minister said that Imran Khan has been categorically stating that he has nothing to do with any Offshore Company but latest reports say he owned the company way back in 1983.
Earlier talking to reporters at London Heathrow Airport, the PTI Chief himself admitted that he formed an Offshore Company to buy the London flat in 1983 to evade British taxes. He said that he formed the Offshore firm on the advice of his accountant to evade taxes during his playing days to buy a flat in London.
“I was already paying 35 per cent tax on my income there, so to evade further taxes, I bought the flat through an Offshore firm, which was my right as I was not a British citizen,” Imran Khan said.
Pervaiz Rasheed said that Imran Khan did not disclose his Offshore Company or source of income in his declaration of assets. He said that Imran Khan acknowledged owning an Offshore Company only after his name appeared in a newspaper.
The minister said that the PTI has the largest number of individuals with ownership of Offshore Companies. He said that apart from PTI Chief, five other close associates of Imran Khan, his sister Aleema Khan, Jehangir Tareen, one Senator and a Senior Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa own Offshore companies.
The information minister said that neither Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif nor any Cabinet member or Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member of the Parliament has any Offshore Company.
Rasheed said that the prime minister would give a policy statement on the issue of Panama Papers in the National Assembly on Monday.
