OPPOSITION leader Anwar Ibrahim has submitted an emergency motion to debate the Pandora Papers – which highlight prominent Malaysian figures with offshore trust accounts – in Parliament to Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun.

“I urge the Dewan Rakyat to debate this pressing issue immediately, as it has named a few bigwigs in this country.”

Among the names listed are Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Deputy Finance Minister II Yamani Hafez Musa, former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, Umno president and former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and PKR’s Selayang MP William Leong.

Anwar said the issue is of interest to many people, as the papers have named politicians from both sides of the political divide.

“I request for the motion to be considered and approved for debate.”

In his letter to Azhar, the PKR president said the matter must be debated in the next sitting as there is a possibility that the financial transactions linked to the aforesaid individuals might have breached the law.

The government must respond to this immediately to clear its name against any accusation that it may have protected these individuals who might have been involved in financial wrongdoings, he added.

Anwar also pointed out that individuals in the current administration are also involved.

By debating the documents, he said, these individuals will have an opportunity to respond to the reports.

The Pandora Papers are an anonymous dump of 2.94 terabytes of confidential financial files to the Investigative Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The dump is made up of more than 11.9 million documents and records from 14 offshore service providers that set up and manage shell companies and trusts in tax havens around the globe.

Tengku Zafrul, Daim and Zahid have responded to the reports. – October 4, 2021.