The interim Government [of Bangladesh] on September 28, 2024, restructured an inter-agency task force meant to bring back money illegally taken abroad. Headed by the Bangladesh Bank governor, the nine-member task force has become operational with immediate effect, said the finance ministry in a notification—The Daily Star, September 29, 2024

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured the chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh that the US government would help Bangladesh bring back the stolen money and provide support to eliminate corruption…. The amount of money illegally sent abroad is believed to be over Tk 100,000 crore, said a press statement issued by the office of the chief adviser to the interim government at the end of last month—The Business Post, September 27, 2024

The cross-border flow of the global proceeds from criminal activities, corruption, and tax evasion is estimated at between US$1 trillion and US$1.6 trillion per year. The corrupt money associated with bribes received by public officials from developing and transition countries is estimated at US$20 billion to US$40 billion per year—a figure equivalent to 20% to 40% of flows of official development assistance (ODA)— Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) Initiative: Challenges, Opportunities, and Action Plan, published jointly by the World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime.

The issue of retrieving alleged untaxed and ill-gotten assets stashed abroad is almost dead in Pakistan, as highlighted in a detailed article published in these columns on April 6, 2024. The issues raised in the article and facts narrated therein went unnoticed by those in power now. Their protectors allegedly hold assets of billions of dollars outside Pakistan, the trail of which was never provided by them, despite tall claims of providing the same whenever required by any court of competent jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the so-called vibrant (sic) media and members of formidable civil society (these days more engrossed in useless debates on social platforms) also failed to take note of it.

Ishaq Dar, et al, anticipated that there would be no agreement or if Switzerland did agree, they would disown it making the junior officer a scapegoat by alleging that he was not authorised to sign it. The plan worked just as the politicians desired

The sordid story of potentially cheating the nation over the issue of unlawful assets stashed abroad started with Muhammad Ishaq Dar, presently Pakistan’s fourth Deputy Prime Minister and thirty-ninth Foreign Minister as well as Leader of the House in Senate. On March 7, 2017, in his capacity as the federal finance minister, Ishaq Dar told the National Assembly: “Pakistan will sign an agreement with Switzerland on the exchange of information regarding bank accounts on March 21, 2017”. He informed fellow parliamentarians: “Several media reports have surfaced over the years alleging that Pakistanis have evaded taxes—a hefty amount of over $180-200 billion—and stashed the money in Swiss banks”. He claimed the situation demanded that Pakistan approach the Swiss government for a treaty surrounding the exchange of information.

Ishaq Dar did not tell the House what happened in August 2014 when the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was to lead a delegation to Switzerland to “re-negotiate and upgrade treaty on Avoidance of Double Taxation [DTA] to retrieve and/or tax undeclared money deposited in the Swiss banks by Pakistani nationals”.

At the last moment, the then-FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa was asked not to go, and FBR's Chief of International Taxes Muhammad Ashfaq, who was later........

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