Money stolen from developing nations should be returned: PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that every year billions of dollars are illegally transferred from developing countries across the globe, ARY NEWS reported.

“White-collar criminals loot US$1 trillion from developing countries every year,” he said while addressing a high-level panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity (FACTI) on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly session and called for formulating laws to bring back this money to the developing countries.

While urging the international community to act jointly against money-laundering, the prime minister said that laws should be devised to bring an end to tax evasion from multi-national companies.

He said that his government had come into power with a mandate to act against financial crimes and end corruption in the country.

Money stolen from poor and underdeveloped countries should be returned, he demanded.

Imran Khan urged the United Nations to take steps against the illegal transfer of money globally and said that without effective steps being taken, a gap between the poor and rich will further grow globally.

He further warned that international peace could also be endangered by rising global poverty. “Unjust distribution of money globally is the basic problem,” he said and added that currently, most of the global wealth is accumulated in the hands of 26 richest people.

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Speaking over COVID-19 measures, the prime minister said that Pakistan took various measures to effectively mitigate the economic effects of coronavirus including launching the Ehsaas programme to financially support 15 million people.

He further urged upon the developed countries to support underdeveloped countries at the time of the pandemic and demanded to provide relief to them in payment of their debts.