Observer Report Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday urged the international community to take “quick, concrete” steps to stem the flow of illicit money from developing countries to tax havens.
He asked them to ensure the return of stolen assets, saying that it could have a “transformational impact” on their development prospects.
These steps should include a commitment by countries that were currently acting as tax havens to “immediately and unconditionally return all foreign assets that are shown to be stolen or whose legitimacy cannot be explained”.
The prime minister made these remarks while speaking at the virtual launch of the final report of the High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Development Agenda (FACTI panel).
He referred to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s proposal to freeze and return the unexplained assets of foreign politically exposed persons, saying it was “worthy of consideration”.
He also suggested several steps the United Nations could take such as initiating “negotiations on the new international tax corporation and anti-money laundering legal instruments like the Convention on Corruption, adopt common principles identified by the FACTI panel that would apply to all financial transactions and establish a UN coordination, adjudication and mediation mechanism on illicit financial flows”.
