House committee urges gov’t to declare stand on Panama Papers

AMMAN — The Lower House's Integrity Committee has sent an official memorandum to the government inquiring about the measures the latter has taken regarding Panama Papers’ leak.

The memo was already submitted to the government through the House speakers’ office, parliamentary sources confirmed to The Jordan Times.

In the memo, a copy of which was seen by The Jordan Times, head of the panel MP Amjad Al Khattab asked the government to inform the House about the procedures it was taking or would take to deal with the Panama Papers especially as they contained names of Jordanian figures. 

“The government is required to clarify its position on the leaked papers,” the committee wrote in the memo.

No official statement has been made yet by the government on the Panama Papers’ leak, which has grabbed headlines around the world.

Around 11 million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have been passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ then shared the documents with a large network of international partners, including The Guardian and the BBC.

The Washington-based consortium said the cache of 11.5 million records detailed the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars.