$5.3B illegal assets traced in 10 states
The recovery unit is facing some hurdles due to ‘Iqama’. The ‘Iqama’ has become a source of money laundering in the country Shahzad Akbar, special assistant to PM
ISLAMABAD — Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability, Shahzad Akbar, on Monday said that the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) has so far traced unlawful assets worth $5.3 billion (around Rs700 billion) in 10 countries.
Addressing a Press conference here along with Senator Faisal Javed Khan and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Media Affairs, Iftikhar Durrani, Shahzad Akbar said it is for the first time that any government has started the process of illegal assets recovery to bring the looted money back to the country.
The ARU has traced these assets through initially probing the assets which are worth more than $1 million, however, the assets below this amount will be checked in the next phase, Shahzad said.
He said out of this $5.3 billion, an amount of $1.3 billion was directly transferred to other countries through money laundering.
Shahzad said the unit has traced 5,000 fake accounts so far through which some unknown people have been sending huge amounts of money. He said the recovery unit is facing some hurdles due to ‘Iqama’ and those assets which are in the names of drivers, gardeners, cook etc. He said Pakistan is the third largest country which possesses three per cent real estate in Dubai and London. The properties worth Rs$15 billion, traced only in Dubai, are the big tool of money laundering.
He said money laundering has left devastating impact on our national economy. Unfortunately the size of our whole economy is equal to the black economy and if the plundered money is added to our economy, it will regain strength.
He said misuse of ‘Iqama’ has become a source of money laundering in the country.
He said there are two types of Iqamas, one the workers from Pakistan possess when they move abroad to earn money and send a big chunk of that money to Pakistani economy in form of remittances while the other type of Iqama is used by the politicians and big names for the purpose of money laundering.
Shahzad said that negotiation process is also continuing with Dubai government for sharing details of ‘Iqama’ holders and their assets.
All the countries are showing great cooperation and willingness in sharing the required assets details which reflect their trust in the honest leadership in Pakistan, he said.
To a question about bringing this traced looted amount of Rs700 billion back to the country, Shahzad said the difficult task to trace this money has been accomplished successfully.
He said this money will be brought back to Pakistan by fulfilling all legal requirements in the respective countries while the process of freezing accounts has been started.
To another question, he said so far the government has not filed even a single case against anyone in this regard. It was the Supreme Court which set up JITs to probe such cases. To another question about the progress in the investigation, Shahzad said we have served notices and investigation is in process with involvement of all the relevant departments of the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan. —