Pakistan can get around $20 billion as tax against around $100 billion in untaxed money belonging to Pakistani nationals in Swiss bank accounts, Transparency International (TI) said on Saturday. TI said the agreement between the Swiss and British governments could serve as a model.
Speaking at an awards ceremony held for Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members for retrieving around Rs 115 billion in embezzled money, TI Pakistan Chairman Sohail Muzaffar said, “Pakistan can receive around $20 billion tax against $100 billion in untaxed money in Swiss banks if the people are identified but an agreement is needed between Pakistan and Switzerland.”
He said an accountability law was needed to prevent organizations from hampering the work of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) does by misusing existing laws. He said PAC must ensure PPRA rules are observe in all public sector departments. National Assembly Leader of Opposition and PAC Chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said PAC has been under pressure, especially treasury bench members, and pressure is likely to increase when PAC examines the expenditure of the present government in November.
He said he did not want PAC to become a political battleground but will not let it be ineffective either. He praised the performance of all PAC members, regardless of alliances. He said no institution was above the law and the military was also a state institution. Nisar said, “The military is not a state within state, it is an institution of state under the Ministry of Defence and the parliament has authority to examine if every single penny has been spent in transparent manner.” He said the current PAC had removed the previous governments’ backlog, unlike all other PAC’s in the last 40 years.
He said the current PAC had produced 10 reports within two and half years and found serving and retired civilian and army officials involved in corruption cases. He said tracing 70 percent of the retied officials involved in embezzlement was not easy, since some “were either dead, living abroad or untraceable.” Nisar said around 22000 audit paras needed implementation and the responsibility fell on the government to implement them.
Nisar said it made sense to appoint the Leader of Opposition as PAC chairman since an audit examined expenditures by the government and ruling party. He said it should remain the responsibility of the opposition to create transparency. PAC member Yasmin Rehman said the committee had examined around 16,000 government vehicles and found 14,000 of them were being misused. PAC member Federal Minister Riaz Pirzada said most corruption was found in the accounts of the foreign aid projects.
He said it would be better if NAB functioned under PAC. PAC member and PML-N MNA Zahid Hamid said PAC disposed of around 23,000 audit paras from nine years reports. He said around Rs 3.4 billion was recovered in 2007-08, around Rs 9 billion in 2008-9, around Rs 20 billion in 2009-10 and over Rs 71 billion was recovered in 2010-11. MNA Noorul Haq Qadri said PAC had enhanced the prestige of parliament.
Later, integrity shields were presented to PAC members.
