Successes, failures in tracing Pakistanis wealth abroad

ISLAMABAD: Various government entities including NAB, FBR, SECP, FIA, IB and SBP have shared with the Supreme Court their efforts to trace and retrieve foreign assets of Pakistani citizens under existing legislative regime, bilateral treaties and multilateral conventions.

These agencies mentioned the outcome of their efforts, both successes and failures, in the report which was recently submitted to the apex court by the committee the SC had constituted to trace and bring back to Pakistan bank accounts and properties held abroad by citizens of Pakistan.

The FBR admitted that its efforts to obtain information from overseas jurisdictions regarding people identified in Panama, Bahamas and Paradise leaks were not successful because these jurisdictions have no tax treaty with Pakistan.

“The efforts to use diplomatic channels through Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also not useful,” the report said. The FBR, however, said that domestically with the help of FIA and SECP it has been able to trace 366 individuals mentioned in PanamaLeaks and 38 individuals in ParadiseLeaks.

Regarding the UAE, the FBR said that it requested the UAE authorities to provide information about Pakistani citizens who have purchased properties there. “The request was, however, not responded to by the UAE authorities,” the report said, adding, “Later the FIA provided a list of 100 Pakistani citizens, with specific details, who have allegedly invested in real estate in UAE.”

It added, “A request for exchange of information about these individuals was made and UAE authorities provided the detail of real estate investment made by 53 individuals. FBR is taking further action on the data provided by UAE authorities.” Intelligence Bureau informed the apex court about its operation against Hundi/Hawala. According to the report, “IB after collecting information about 952 Hundi/Hawala dealers shared it with FIA and NACTA leading to investigations by the FIA. In a particular case related to smuggling of foreign exchange abroad, IB conducted an intelligence based operation in collaboration with FIA that culminated in unearthing very large sums transferred abroad in 2016 through four different exchange companies.”

Regarding the FIA, the report said that following the direction of DG FIA the zonal offices in Lahore and Karachi have initiated fresh enquiries against those Pakistani nationals who owned properties in Dubai targeting 662 properties where particulars are available.

The report added that 31 fresh enquiries against 216 individuals have been initiated by the FIA’s Lahore office and 20 fresh enquiries against 390 individuals have been initiated by the Karachi office.

Regarding SECP, the report said, “SECP also identified 155 individuals out of PanamaLeaks who were directors in 600 companies registered in Pakistan. However, it was observed that except for five companies, none of these companies has disclosed any investment abroad.”

The report said that details of all these 600 companies have been shared with the FBR and SBP for further scrutiny and action. “Similar information was shared in case of Bahamas and Paradise leaks.”

The SBP said that it has signed MoUs for supervisory/bilateral cooperation with the banking regulatory authorities of 20 countries. “The thrust of these MoUs is on sharing of knowledge and experiences related to development of banking laws and banking supervision standards, etc. State Bank of Pakistan, however, has been actively assisting the relevant law enforcement agencies in their effort by providing them required banking information of the suspected persons and corporate entities.

NAB said that it has so far initiated 405 Mutual Legal Assistance (MLAs)/Request for legal assistance (RLAs) from foreign jurisdictions to obtain evidence in various cases of corruption and corrupt practices. Out of these, information and evidence in 186 MLAs have been received.

The report said, “NAB is also designated investigation agency for predicate offences under the Anti-Money Laundering Acts, 2010. In this connection, the Financial Monitoring Unit has so far disseminated to NAB around 165 cases of suspicious transaction reports and currency transaction reports for investigation and prosecution of the offences of money laundering.”

It added, “Out of these 165 cases, 67 are at inquiry/investigation stage, 11 references are under trial and two convictions have been awarded. NAB has also recovered Rs455 million in these cases besides freezing of assets of accused persons.”