“Stolen wealth of poor countries must be returned”, Imran Khan
Monitoring Desk:
Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged upon the international community to stop the illicit flow of money and play its role in returning back “stolen wealth” to developing countries of the globe. The Premier made this demand while addressing the Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FATI) on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly on Thursday.
Imran Khan urged upon the international community to play its role in ending what he called the bleeding of poor and developing countries and return the stolen money. He said Pakistan appreciated the initiative by Nigeria and Norway to establish the panel on international financial accountability.
Noting that billions of dollars illicitly flow out of developing countries each year, he said his government had come “with a robust public mandate to get rid of this menace from our country”.
He said although the PTI government had taken several initiatives domestically, “what is required is strengthening international cooperation to bring perpetrators of financial crimes to justice”.
The event was convened to “present the interim report of the FACTI panel, which identifies the major gaps in the implementation and the systemic shortcomings of the existing international frameworks for tax cooperation, anti-corruption [and] anti-money laundering”, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Twitter.
The event provided a forum to discuss priority actions on identified challenges, “particularly in light of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on progress towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
It added that the event would also “foster a discussion amongst civil society, international institutions, academia and the business sector to explore the issues highlighted in the FACTI panel’s interim report”.
