Pakistan's PM Leaves Country, Spanish Minister Resigns

Nawaz Sharif faces growing pressure and calls for his resignation, a Spanish minister has stepped aside, and more governments are pledging reform as fallout from the Panama Papers revelations continues.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, facing calls for his resignation as a result of his family’s holdings in offshore companies, checked himself into a London hospital this week, setting off speculation that he might not return to Pakistan until the furore dies down.

The outcry against the prime minister was touched off by revelations in the Panama Papers that his daughter and two of his sons controlled shell companies through which they had acquired expensive London real estate.

Political opponents have called for his resignation and a judicial commission investigation of his offshore affairs.

He is Also facing pressures because of his offshore holdings, Spain’s minister of industry resigned on Friday.

José Manuel Soria had previously vehemently denied any ties to an offshore company cited in the Panama Papers and reported by online newspaper El Confidencial and television station La Sexta.

“I totally deny that I have anything to do with any company based in Panama, or any other tax haven,” he said earlier in the week.

However Spanish media caught the minister in a series of lies about his involvement in offshore companies, which culminated with newspaper El Mundo proving the minister was director of a Jersey-based company up to 2002, when he was already into politics.