The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) say they released the largest investigation in journalism history on Sunday in the form of Pandora Papers, the names of key members of Pakistan's federal cabinet, their families and major financial backers associated with Prime Minister Imran Khan's party have surfaced.

"Now leaked documents reveal that key members of Khan’s inner circle, including cabinet ministers, their families and major financial backers have secretly owned an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth," read an ICIJ report, adding military leaders have been implicated as well.

However, the prime minister does not own any offshore company. So who does?

Finance Minister Shaukar Tarin

Tarin and members of his family own four offshore comapnies.

Briefing on the establishment of companies, Tariq Fawad Malik, a financial consultant who handled the paperwork on the companies, said they were set up as part of the Tarin family’s intended investment in a bank with a Saudi business.

“As a mandatory prerequisite by [the] regulator, we engaged with the Central Bank of Pakistan [State Bank of Pakistan] to obtain their ’in-principle’ approval for the said strategic investment,” read the ICIJ document quoting Malik.

However, the deal didn’t proceed, he added.

Tarin didn’t respond to ICIJ’s questions.

On Sunday Tarin in a statement said: "The off-shore companies mentioned were incorporated as part of the fund raising process for my Bank.”

After the publication of papers, Tarin tweeted: "In 2014, M E Developers LLC of Tariq bin Laden wanted to invest in Silkbank. They got In principal approval from the SBP and then opened four offshore accounts to raise structured finance to raise funds."

"Before anything could happen there was law and order situation in Pakistan and bin Laden decided not to invest. No bank accounts were opened, no transactions took place and the companies stood closed," said the finance minister.

Federal Minister for Water Resource Moonis Elahi

Elahi's father founded the Pakistan Muslim League-Q which is an ally of the PTI government.

Scandals linked to the Elahi family have become a regular feature of national politics over the years, but have rarely resulted in legal consequences.

In 2007, it was found that the Bank of Punjab, owned by the Elahi-led provincial government, had made a reported $608 million in unsecured loans, many to companies owned by the bank’s directors or people with political connections. When the loans went bad, the provincial government ultimately paid to bail out the bank.

In January 2016, Moonis, then a member of Punjab’s provincial legislature, met with officials at Asiaciti Trust, a financial services provider that specializes in offshore wealth management. Records show that Elahi told Asiaciti staff that he wanted to invest money from the 2007 sale of land owned by Phalia Sugar Mills, an Elahi family business.

The records show that Asiaciti officials asked Elahi about his past legal problems. He provided them with a court document clearing him of fraud charges unrelated to the Bank of Punjab scandal.

After the meeting, documents show, Asiaciti designated Elahi as a “politically exposed person” or PEP — a legal term denoting a corruption risk related to a client’s status as a public official.

Singapore’s anti-money-laundering laws require that management at professional firms like Asiaciti approve any business done with PEPs. The firms also have to establish the source of a PEP’s wealth and of the specific funds to be invested, and they have to take other steps to guard against money laundering.

Asiaciti commissioned Thomson Reuters Risk Management Solutions,a unit of the financial information giant, to conduct an “enhanced due diligence” check.

Thomson Reuters produced a 19-page report detailing allegations of Elahi’s involvement in “several corrupt land development projects,” including that he set up a fake company, fraudulently obtained loans and sold land at inflated prices to government agencies.

The report noted that the Bank of Punjab had filed a complaint with the NAB against the Elahi family, alleging that under the “influence” of Moonis Elahi’s father, the bank had made an illegal loan to the buyer of the family’s Phalia Sugar Mills property.

Later, Asiaciti accepted Moonis Elahi as a client, despite the report’s findings, according to the records on Feb 15, 2016.

Elahi provided Asiaciti with the contract from the $33.7 million Phalia Sugar Mills sale as the source of the funds he wanted to invest, records show. In other words, Elahi asked Asiaciti to invest the proceeds of an allegedly corrupt loan obtained from a state-owned bank.

The records don’t say whether Asiaciti asked about the Bank of Punjab’s allegations. The bank did not respond to questions from ICIJ’s partner, The Guardian, about the loan, including what became of its complaint, citing client confidentiality.

A spokesperson for Asiaciti said that the firm maintained a strong compliance program, and that their offices have all passed audits for anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing practices.

“However, no compliance program is infallible – and when an issue is identified, we take necessary steps with regard to the client engagement and make the appropriate notifications to regulatory agencies,” the spokesperson said.

They said that ICIJ’s reporting was based on incomplete information but declined to elaborate.

Asiaciti registered a trust in low-tax Singapore and proposed to use part of the proceeds of the Phalia Sugar deal to invest in another Punjab sugar company, RYK Mills, in which Elahi already held a stake.

The plan called for a trust to hold an investment vehicle, funded by the “sale of a sugar mill,” that would own two properties in the UK.

But, records show, when Asiaciti advised Elahi of its legal obligation to share his “financial information with the relevant tax authorities” – in this case, Federal Board of Revenue – he balked.

Records show that Asiaciti received a phone call from Elahi. He wanted to scrap the trust.

“Moonis,” an Asiaciti manager wrote in a memo, “has concerns about the … reporting requirements.”

According to the memo, Elahi preferred to hold the investments in a UK-registered trust in his wife’s name; as a UK tax resident, she would not be subject to the same disclosure requirements.

“It appears that Moonis has no connection” to that trust, the memo says.

Less than a month after the phone call, Asiaciti prepared the paperwork to terminate Elahi’s trust.

The following year, public records show, Elahi’s wife used a UK shell company to transfer an $8.2 million London apartment overlooking the River Thames to a woman named Mahrukh Jahangir, who then filed a UK Land Registry document generally used by joint owners and trustees. The transfer was not for “money or anything of monetary value,” according to public records.

A woman with the same name as Jahangir appears as a 9.4% shareholder in the RYK Mills – the business targeted as an investment in Elahi’s talks with Asiaciti. ICIJ tried to contact Jahangir for comment but did not receive a response.

Neither Elahi nor his wife disclosed ownership of the apartment or RYK assets in their official declaration of interests from 2017 as part of his candidacy to become a member of the National Assembly.

The Elahi family have ignored multiple attempts to seek comment concerning the allegations concerning the Phalia Mills sale, Moonis Elahi’s dealings with Asiaciti, or the UK based trust he intended to set up.

Back in the country, Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) In April announced a criminal probe into price fixing in the powerful sugar industry, naming RYK Sugar Mills among the companies allegedly involved.

The industry dominates the valuable agricultural land of Punjab and is one of the biggest water users in one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. It is also among the world’s largest producers of sugarcane and uses enough water each year to fill Australia’s Sydney Harbour more than 45 times.

On Twitter, Elahi acknowledged that he “indirectly” held shares in RYK Mills, though he wasn’t involved in the company’s management.

Responding to news of the criminal probe, the prime minister, in a speech, called out the “sugar mafia,” which he characterized as a “powerful elite” that set itself above the rule of law and frequently sought to “blackmail the government.”

Omer Bakhtyar

Omer, brother of Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, transferred a $1 million apartment in the Chelsea area of London to his elderly mother through an offshore company in 2018.

The National Accountability Bureau has been investigating allegations that his family’s wealth inexplicably “ballooned” since Bhaktyar first became a minister in Pervez Musharraf’s government in 2004.

In a written statement to ICIJ, Makhdum Bakhtyar said that the anti-corruption watchdog’s investigation was founded on baseless allegations which had underestimated his family’s past wealth, and that it has so far not resulted in a formal complaint.

Son of PM's former adviser Dr Waqar Masood

Abdullah Masood, son of the prime minister's chief adviser for finance and revenue between 2019 and 2020, co-owns a company based in the British Virgin Islands. Masood resigned in August amid a policy dispute. He told ICIJ that he did not know what his son’s company did, and added that his son lived a modest life, and was not his financial dependent.

Former minister for water resources Faisal Vawda

Vawda set up an offshore company in 2012 to invest in UK properties, the Pandora Papers show. He resigned from the national assembly seat in March amid a controversy over his status as a dual US-Pakistan national. Vawda also resigned from the portfolio of minister. However, he was reappointed as a senator in Senate election in March this year.

Vawda told ICIJ he has declared all worldwide assets held in his name to Pakistan's tax authorities.

The Prime Minister's reported financial backers are also prominent in the files.

Arif Naqvi, PTI donor

Naqvi was reported to be a major donor to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 2013 election campaign. He owned several offshore companies, according to the ICIJ.

The files show that in 2017, Naqvi transferred ownership of UK holdings – three luxury apartments, his country estate and a property in London’s suburbs – into an offshore trust operated by Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank declined to respond to ICIJ concerning the beneficiaries of the trust.

The next year, he presided over the spectacular collapse of his Dubai-based private equity firm, Abraaj Group.

US prosecutors charged Naqvi with engineering a $400 million fraud against Abraaj investors and this year persuaded a court to allow his extradition from the UK Naqvi has denied wrongdoing.

Naqvi didn't respond to ICIJ questions.

Tariq Shafi, PTI donor

A leading businessman and another PTI donor, Shafi held $215 million through offshore companies, the records show.

Shafi did not respond to ICIJ’s questions.