RE: Standing Committee on Finance's deliberations

I refer to the deliberations on Economic Reforms Act 1992 by some members of National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance reported in your newspaper’s business page dated 25/8/2016. After an official of State Bank of Pakistan informed the committee that a total amount of $7.9 billion was moved out of Pakistan through FOREX accounts during the last five years, an honourable member from PTI, Mr Asad Umar responded by saying that data from Dubai Land Records show that Pakistanis hold property worth $6.6 billion in the city. The State Bank of Pakistan did not reveal in this data ($7.9 billion) as to how much of it went to Dubai and how much of it went to other countries and for what purposes. Therefore, an important question arises in readers’ mind as to how has Mr Asad Umar established that there is a clear link between $7.9 billion moved out of Pakistan during the last five years and property worth $6.6 billion owned by Pakistanis in Dubai? The data from Dubai Land Records showing that Pakistanis own property worth 6.6 billion in Dubai does not necessarily mean that purchase of property in Dubai is financed from the money sent out of Pakistan. There are a lot of Pakistanis working in the Middle East who have bought properties in Dubai from their money they earned and saved abroad.

Another honourable member of the committee Mr Abdul Rashid Godil termed the Economic Reform Act 1992 as a “flawed” law. I would like to ask the respectable member of the finance committee, Mr Abdul Rashid Godil that if the law is “flawed” then why it has been in force during the last almost 24 years? What are the flaws in this law? What are the lawmakers suggestions to remove the flaw, if any? I am wondering as to what is the take away for an ordinary citizen of Pakistan from the above reported deliberations of Standing Committee on Finance of National Assembly? EJAZ AHMAD MAGOON Lahore