Investigative journalist Umar Cheema, who was part of the Pandora Papers team, has said that, “After the investigative team started probing the address and the ICIJ sent queries to the PM’s spokesperson to seek an answer, the team had the impression that there is nothing suspicious about the address.”
“We thought that it is possible to have more than two addresses with the same name and did not think of it as something problematic,” Cheema said.
However, some government officials reacted preemptively, saying the PM did not own any offshore company even before the official release of the Pandora Papers. This made the matter look suspicious.
Earlier, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill issued a clarification regarding the 2 Zaman Park address and said that he was questioned whether the premier had registered a property abroad under someone else’s name.
He said that there were two properties, about half a kilometre apart, with two separate entrances, but with the “same address” — 2 Zaman Park.
Gill said whosoever owns the offshore companies will have to answer for his businesses himself. “The prime minister does not personally know the man who owns the other address nor has ever met him or his father,” the premier's aide said.