Govt plans to sign agreements with China, UAE to check money laundering: PM's assistant

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Sunday said that the government would sign agreements with China and the UAE for the exchange of information and joint investigation to check the money laundering.

“Nine to ten billion dollars of money laundering was annually taking place from Pakistan. Since the relevant institutions such as the FIA have been activated and being fully supported, therefore, cases of corruption and those of fake accounts are being unearthed,” he said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

The special assistant said the system had been streamlined. He said a special asset recovery unit had been established in the PM office which was working under his supervision.

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He said that the previous governments were responsible for current economic situation of the country. He said besides huge debt burden, the losses of public sector enterprises stood over one trillion rupees.

Shahzad Akbar said the government had finalized a broad based mutual legal assistance law to obtain evidence from foreign jurisdictions about financial crimes and mega corruption cases involving Pakistanis.

He said the law will soon be placed before the cabinet and it will be brought first through an ordinance and then presented before the parliament.

“This law is more open and will empower the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the FIA to carry out the investigations as per the international treaties,” he said.

The PM’s assistant said that a bilateral treaty was again being ratified with the Swiss authorities which would enable the country to get the details of the bank accounts opened by Pakistani nationals.

He said that Pakistan had already signed a treaty with Britain which would help speed up the investigations into different high profile asset cases.

The special assistant said he was also visiting Britain next week where he would meet with his counterpart of National Crime Agency and also hold discussions on the pending requests for extradition including that of former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

He said we are also exploring the option of initiating civil proceedings in Britain as it will ensure early repatriation of the plundered wealth.

Shahzad Akbar said that over the last decade or so no effort was made for the asset recovery despite the fact that countries such as China and India achieved great success in the asset recovery.