LAHORE: The Pakistani Twitter-sphere today saw the prime minister’s daughter being schooled by two Pulitzer prize-winning journalists on the true nature and global impact of the Panama Papers, broken by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
In a bid to ‘cleanse’ her family’s name of the Panama Papers controversy, Maryam Nawaz had taken to Twitter Tuesday evening to share her thoughts.
She had proceeded by calling the Panama Papers scandal, which rocked some of the most powerful public office holders around the world, “crap”.
She doubled down on that statement by tweeting that the scandal was “never about corruption”.
Unexpectedly, Bastian Obermayer?, one of the ICIJ’s Pulitzer-winning journalists who broke the story internationally, stepped in at that point to set the record straight.
“Sorry to tell you,” he said, “but the Panama papers ARE about corruption.”
Maryam retorted saying that the “misery of the journalists” who broke the Panama story “is understandable”.
She also expressed “regret” over what she alleged was a “nexus” between the Panama Papers journalists and their “Pakistani counterparts” and said it was “sad that they became a part of conspiracy against Pakistan”.
Obermayer responded by giving her some perspective on what journalism is about and what the scope of the Panama Papers actually was. Minutes later, Frederik Obermaier?, another Pulitzer-winning journalist who worked on the Panama Papers, joined the conversation. He reminded Maryam that the scandal had not been as inconsequential as she believed. The conversation eventually subsided after Maryam stopped tweeting.
