Pnama Leaks's The rich list

The Panama Papers constitute one of the biggest-ever leaks of confidential or secret information, surpassing in volume alone that made by Edward Snowden.

The papers were leaked from a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca and in 11.5 million documents there is a trove of information as to how the world’s richest people have concealed their money in offshore companies in order to avoid taxation.

Over 200 people of Pakistani origin are on the list and there are some very big names indeed. The leak and the subsequent analysis by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung has made headlines around the world, but in the case of those named as from Pakistan, which includes individuals belonging to the prime minister’s family, it has done nothing — so far — to uncover any wrongdoing or criminal activity.

Very wealthy people have attempted to avoid taxation since time immemorial. So-called ‘tax havens’ were developed to service this need as well as provide significant revenue for the countries in which they are legally based. There is nothing inherently illegal about operating a tax haven nor anything inherently illegal in taking advantage of the relief from taxation they offer. But it is also true that tax havens can be and have been used for criminal purposes, providing a parking place for ill-gotten gains and laundering dirty money.

They offer a cloak of invisibility to those using them. While there is no evidence so far that any of those named in Pakistan have done anything other than what very rich people do worldwide when they avail themselves of tax-haven services, it remains doubtful whether there will ever be any impartial investigation within the country that could confirm this.

Hiding one’s wealth may not be a crime per se but it does give rise to suspicion and doubt as to motive and if those who rule us are in any way found linked to such activity, they have to face and answer the uncomfortable questions they are confronted with.

These revelations may not confirm any criminality but they do sit uneasily in terms of the fact that the ruling classes of Pakistan have used tax havens for decades whilst presiding over a desperately poor country, where the tax burden is unfairly borne by the salaried and working classes while the super rich conveniently avoid paying their share.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th,  2016.

Welcome to the game of drones

So, in the world that we live in today, the US executive has the right to kill anyone, anywhere on Earth. PHOTO: AFP

The US President, Barack Obama, acknowledged on Friday that civilians should not have been killed in drone strikes. He went on to say that the US administration is now cautious on striking where women or children are present.

Gee thanks, Mr President.

It took President Obama close to eight years to acknowledge this fact.

Drones might be the third most annoying thing in the sky after mosquitoes and plastic bags caught in the breeze. Despite being a nuisance, the US president loves them. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, not only has he launched more than eight times the drone strikes his predecessor did, Obama likes joking about them too.

Drone strikes are a very serious business. A strike on a training camp of the militant Islamic State (IS) group in western Libya killed more than 40 people in February; a drone strike in Somalia against al Shabab on March 5th killed 150 people.

This may not be news to anyone. But the popularity of drones amongst the US administration and public alike is news.  Surveys carried out by Gallup, Pew Research Centre and the US News consistently reveal that Americans approve the use of drone strikes overseas.

It is easy to see why drone strikes are so popular. They cost less than manned planes, and they kill a lot of terrorists; except we do not know if they actually kill terrorists.

The catch is, nobody really knows how many get killed in drone strikes, including the CIA. The data sheets covering casualty loss due to drone strikes all use estimates. That is right, estimates. And these estimates can vary greatly.

Consider Pakistan, for example. Estimates range from 10 civilian casualties to 1,200. The gap is so astonishing that it might be factually incorrect to term it as a margin for error.

Furthermore, the US drone policy has no rules. In other words, the rules have been made so obscure that they might as well not have them.

Eric Holder, former US Attorney General said that the US uses drone strikes only when there is ‘an imminent threat’ to US national security, which is pretty clear, until you dig a little deeper.

NBC quoted a Justice Department memo, which claimed that,

“An imminent threat does not require the US to have clear evidence that a specific attack on US persons and interests will take place in the immediate future.”

The word ‘imminent’ implies immediate future; otherwise it would not be imminent.

That’s weird.

It turns out that imminent is not the only word with a surprisingly fluid interpretation when it comes to drone strikes. The definition of civilian casualties has also been open to interpretation. The CIA counts able bodied, military aged males as militants, unless there is concrete and indisputable evidence suggesting otherwise.

By this logic, every middle aged man living in Karachi is a member of Strings – the band.

Astonishingly, the CIA has been getting away with using such absurd logic for a very long time. Consider the very first drone strike in Afghanistan in 2002, for example. As mentioned by the Stanford Law journal in 2012, the drone strike killed three men, one of whom was assumed to be Osama Bin Laden.

Why, you may ask?

Because of his height.

Reports later confirmed that it was an elderly man collecting scrap metal.

The world has been playing with such absurdities.

But understand this; drones are probably the most lethal weapons of our time. They make absolutely no noise, are virtually invisible to the human eye and they are almost as fast as a small aircraft and have the capability to launch missiles.

However, here is what makes them the most dangerous weapon – it is used more often than you think. It has been used 423 times in Pakistan, 134 times in Yemen, 300 times in Afghanistan and 23 times in Somalia.

So, in the world that we live in today, the US executive has the right to kill anyone, anywhere on Earth, at any time, for secret reasons, based on secret evidence, based on a secret process, undertaken by unidentified officials.

Scary? Yes.

But nobody will actively fight it because the US is powerful and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen are not. This admission by President Obama will go nowhere, because of power.

It is all about power. Welcome to the game of drones.

Courtesy: Express Tribune

Women call me 'beta' but call Fawad by his name: Sidharth Malhotra

Sidharth also opens up about relationship with Alia. PHOTO: GETTYIMAGES

Pakistani star-turned-Bollywood heart-throb Fawad Khan has caught the attention of females all over the subcontinent after the release of his latest Bollywood film Kapoor & Sons, which also featured Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt.

Sidharth told Pinkvilla that he’s learnt a lot about Fawad’s fan following while working with him, and apparently the Pakistani star is especially loved by older women.

PHOTO: FASHION360

“I learned a lot about his fan following and how much people love him. People of all age brackets love him. We kind of divided our fans during the film. The slightly mature women were biased towards him and the younger crowd was tilted towards my side.”

The same women that would call Sidharth “beta,” casually called Fawad by his name.

“I keep joking about how the slightly mature women would call me Sidharth beta and not use any such suffix for Fawad and just call him by his name,” said Sidharth.

PHOTO: SANTABANTA.COM

Sidharth also spoke about his co-star Alia Bhatt, further reaffirming rumours that the two stars are in a relationship.

Referring to when Alia commented that she could get lost in Sidharth’s eyes during a Kapoor & Sons promotion, the star said, “She looks into my eyes and I look into hers and we get completely lost. She is someone who I am very close to. She is one of the most important people in my life right now. We have known each other for a long time. We share a great rapport and I totally second what she says. I am happy that she is getting lost in my eyes.”

Courtesy: Express Tribune

Had Arsenal signed Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain or Edinson Cavani they might have won

The long-term injury to Santi Cazorla has been instrumental in the poor form of the team and has once again illustrated his value as he is the fulcrum in an effectual midfield.

For an average Arsenal fan, this season is characterised by a number of vacillations. Cautious optimism in September followed by a false sense of superiority over other teams in January that was swiftly followed by a cruel realisation of another season of ‘what-ifs’ and regrets over what could have been but didn’t materialise in the month of April.

It appears that the team doesn’t have the winning mentality, no real leaders in the squad, too many injuries at crucial stages, no adequate investment in the transfer window, a manager who is past his sell-by date, and the list goes on and on. What matters at the end of the day are the fans; and they are despondent and vexed.

No one really gave them a chance in August. It may have been the strength of direct rivals who invested heavily while the uncompromising Arsene Wenger decided not to sign an outfield player in the summer transfer window which made Gunners the only European club in the top five leagues not to land a senior outfield player.

Arsene Wenger.
Photo: Reuters

Regardless, the current champions, Chelsea, had a season to forget, Manchester City seems to be waiting for Pep Guardiola to arrive as they have been plagued by inconsistency. Manchester United have had to deal with football philosophy issues under Van Gaal. This was supposedly Arsenal’s season where Wenger would prove all his doubters wrong and finally get his hands on the elusive Barclays Premier League (BPL) title.

They started off strong until January and had a win over surprise leaders Leicester Cityreducing the gap to two points between the two teams which had everyone saying that this was Arsenal’s title to lose now.

When the pressure is on, Arsenal crumble and they have been labelled as ‘bottlers’ which is manifested by the poor run which finds them trailing Leicester by eight points currently with seven  games to go. It is highly improbable that they will win the league now. With no FA cup, the usual last 16 exits from the Champions League, and almost certainly falling short of the BPL crown, feels like déjà vu for Arsenal fans.

Stan Kroenke is happy with the sustainable income stream from the club, but Arsene Wenger  is unaffected by the shortcomings of the team and the greatest asset of the club, the fans are being antagonised by promises of an enviable future, which in all honesty is unlikely to occur under current circumstances.

Wenger stated that he has Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud as strikers who can propel them to the title, and that they unequivocally didn’t need to sign a top-class striker. The fact thatAlex Iwobi is the current number nine is evidence of the shortcomings of the effectiveness of the options available.

Alex Lwobi.
Photo: Stuart MacFarlane / Arsenal FC

Had Arsenal signed Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain or Edinson Cavani things might have been different. Petr Cech was the signing of a phenomenal goalkeeper; finally a replacement for Jens Lehmann.

Petr Cech.
Photo: Getty Images

But what about signing a top goal scorer to finally replace Robin van Persie, this was undoubtedly the missing piece Arsenal desperately needed. Wenger displayed his naivety once again by not signing a player that Mesut Ozil could feed and flourish through.

Mesut Ozil and team members.
Photo: Getty Images

The long-term injury to Santi Cazorla has been instrumental in the poor form of the team and has once again illustrated his value as he is the fulcrum in an effectual midfield.

Santi Cazorla.
Photo: Reuters

Pundits have claimed there is a lack of leaders of the stature of Patrick Viera or Martin Keown in the current side that can lift the team in the dressing room and in the field. Arsene Wenger is a legend at Arsenal and should definitely have a statue at the Emirates after retirement for his unprecedented achievements, but can he make this team great again? I hope against hope that he can revive the success that catalysed Arsenal into a top team but sadly this season will be full of accustomed self-condemnation.

Afghan intelligence agent arrested in Balochistan

PHOTO: PPI

CHAMAN: An Afghan intelligence agent was arrested on Wednesday by security forces near the Pakistan-Afghan border region of Chaman.

According to initial reports, the suspect is a serving member of the Afghan intelligence and was arrested during an operation conducted by Frontier Corps (FC).

The agent, who has not yet been named, was in possession of several explosives, ammunition and weapons, an FC spokesperson told The Express Tribune. The said agent has been handed to authorities and further investigation is underway.

The arrest comes almost two weeks after RAW agent Kulbhoshan Yadav was arrested from the same region near Balochistan.

Yadav, arrested on March 3, was deployed in Iran’s Chabahar port before crossing into Balochistan to meet some separatist leaders.

Days earlier, Iran conveyed to Pakistan that it is investigating whether the Indian spy arrested last month crossed the border illegally or was picked up from its soil.

Courtesy: Express Tribune