Observer Report
New York
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that while it is true that illicit financial flows adversely affect wealthy countries, such movement of ill-gotten money is “devastating the developing countries” across the world.
The premier was addressing an event called ‘High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development’ at the United Nations in New York, on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.
“I do not think people fully realise the impact it (illicit financial flows) is having on poverty, deaths, destruction and human development in developing countries,” said Prime Minister Imran, who was welcomed to the dialogue with a huge round of applause from the audience.
He said in the last decade Pakistan had a corrupt leadership which accumulated more debt for the country in the last 10 years than in the previous 60 years.
“We are trying our best to retrieve our money,” the premier said, conceding that even when his government has located properties owned by Pakistanis abroad in the past, a number of legal lacunas and loopholes have made it difficult to take such corrupt elements to task.
He called upon developed countries to do better as far as the return of illicit wealth is concerned, saying “There is a lack of will in the rich countries because they gain from it.”
Addressing the same event earlier, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stressed upon cooperation between countries to curb corruption and the flow of illegal funds.
“Collaboration is crucial in cracking down on tax avoidance, tax evasion, corruption and illicit financial flows that deprive developing countries of tens of billions of dollars of potential resources for their development every year,” he said.
The discussion also saw other leaders and experts stressing on the importance of clamping down on illicit financial flows.
Sneha Shah, a financial analyst with Thomson Reuters’ Refinitiv, shared alarming figures with the forum including that 86 per cent of the ill-gotten money is flowing through the global banking system.
“We are losing 1.5 trillion dollars in illicit financial flows each year and we are not winning this battle. How much we are recovering? One per cent of that wealth,” she said. “And 86pc flowing is through the banking system, so we are not winning.
APP adds: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday expressed serious concerns on possible massacre in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir after lifting of curfew in the Valley. In a meeting with Executive Director of Human Right Watch Kenneth Roth in New York late Wednesday on the sidelines of 74th UNGA session, he said India was making every effort to disturb the demography of Muslim-majority Kashmir.
The prime minister apprised Kenneth Roth that around 15,000 Kashmiri youth had been detained by the Indian security forces to curb their voice for freedom. He called upon the international human rights organizations to pressurize India to allow foreign observers monitor the situation in IOJ&K.
He said he had arrived in New York as an ‘Ambassador of Kashmir’ and expressed resolve to present the case of oppressed Kashmiris at the UNGA forum forcefully.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that it was too risky to allow tensions to escalate between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, saying he would urge the United Nations to step in.
Noting what he said was the world’s indifference to civilian suffering in Kashmir, he condemned India’s military clampdown there and said he would appeal to the United Nations (UN) for help.
“They do not understand that this can go horribly wrong,” the Pakistani leader said at a meeting with editors of The New York Times, according to a report in the newspaper.
In August, the Indian government revoked the longstanding autonomy of the disputed border region and arrested thousands of Kashmiris. It cut off phone and internet service to millions of people and imposed a curfew, now in its 51st day, raising tensions between India and Pakistan.
Khan said he would ask the United Nations to intervene when he addressed the General Assembly on Friday.
“This is the U.N.’s job,” he said, adding, “They have to intervene, send observers there.”
Over the past two months, Indian forces have rounded up at least 2,000 Kashmiris, including elected representatives, the Times quoted local officials as saying.
