$100b looted from Pakistan stashed in Swiss accounts: TI

The Transparency International (TI) suggested that $20 billion tax could be received if an agreement is signed.Transparency International Pakistan Chairman Sohail Muzaffar said this while addressing a ceremony held in Islamabad to award shields to members of the Public Accounts Committee. He said recovering Rs 115 billion is a remarkable achievement of the PAC. He said that the FIA was misusing the anti-corruption laws, while the National Accountability Bureau has been made ineffective systematically.Speaking on the occasion, Ch Nisar Ali, PAC chairman and Opposition leader in the National Assembly, said certain parameters needed to be set before inspecting the audit paras of the government. He said it was necessary because the PAC doesn’t want that its findings meet the same fate as most of the Supreme Court rulings have.Ch Nisar said hindrances are being created in the process of audit reports of the incumbent government.“Process of evolving audit reports of the present government is being hampered. The rulers tried to make Public Accounts Committee (PAC) a joke when the process of accountability of the incumbent government was started. The directives for compliance of 22000 audit paras were ignored. We cannot make PAC a political arena. PAC is whiff of fresh air in this era of corruption and mismanagement,” he said.He went on to say democracy, parliament and transparency are the ways for survival of the country. “Time has come to steer the country out of difficult times. No institution including Army is above law,” he remarked.The Public Accounts Committees had not completed even a single report during the last 40 years, he told. The sitting PAC had prepared last 10 years reports during two and a half year, he added.