The Panamanian government has contracted communications and consulting firm Bellwether Strategies to “promote Panama’s commercial and diplomatic objectives” and to provide centralized “crisis communication” strategies for the government’s response to the Panama Papers. Panama’s president Juan Carlos Varela and ambassador to the U.S. Emanuel Gonzalez-Revilla will as the officials overseeing Bellwether’s work.
Pakistani members of the opposition continue to accuse Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of obstructing investigations set up in the wake of Panama Papers. Sharif’s children, including his daughter who has been touted as a potential successor, were linked to at least three offshore companies. Sharif’s government pledged to establish a commission to look into allegations of wrongdoing but the process has been hampered by a lack of agreement on the terms of the commission’s investigation. Separately, a three-member bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court will hear pleas this week from opposition parties asking the court to bar the Prime Minister from carrying on with official duties amid allegations he lied to the country’s national assembly about the value of his assets.
