Most people considered the past Federal Government to be cleaner. This is quite similar if we look at the response towards provincial governments, except Punjab. However, if we look at the results from provinces from a standalone point of view, Punjab is the only province where present provincial government is rated to be cleaner than previous provincial government and Pakhtonkawa Khyber is rated as the most corrupt province.
Syed Adil Gilani, Chairman, TI Pakistan, said that corruption is the root cause of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, shortage of electricity, food etc and lack of governance in Pakistan, and that the credibility of Pakistan is almost at the lowest level, which can be seen from almost no funding in last two years from the Friends of Pakistan Trust Fund being managed by the World Bank. He said the most corrupt sector is Tendering, which eats away at least 40% of Pakistan development budget, and this is confirmed from the recent results of Transparent tendering for transportation of sugar in Trading Corporation of Pakistan where the TCP has saved at least Rs49.3 million by implementing Public Procurement Rules 2004, which is 40% lower than cost of same work awarded last year. Violators of PPRA are BOI, Wapda, CDA, NHA, CCP, SECP, SBP, Customs, EOBI, ECP, EPZA, FIA, MOI, FPSC, FOS, GPA, Islamabad HC, JPCL, MoH, MoInv, MoPA, MoIT, MoPriv MoZakat, NIH, NSC, PCB, PEPA, PHF, NLC, NIC, PID, Priv Commission, and Utility Stores Corp.”
A copy of the National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 is attached with the petition.
As a consequence of this galloping corruption, the corridor of government from the lowest to the highest has led to its complete supremacy in derogation of rule of law. The magnitude of this menace has attained such an immeasurable proportion that the Consul General of Malaysia, in a press conference, openly stated that more than one hundred billion rupees had flown from Pakistan to the coffers of Malaysia under the scheme “Malaysia as your second home”. The leaders of political parties, members of higher echelon of bureaucracy, members of higher echelon of the armed forces and members of higher echelon of business community are openly investing the looted money in the countries like Switzerland, USA, UK, Spain, Germany, France South Korea, Malaysia UAE etc without any fear and impunity and without taking any care of the tax laws of this country.
7. In response to the identification of this spreading cancer of corruption in the body of international community, the United Nations rose from its slumber and passed an instrument in 2003 known as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Almost two years were taken to seek ratification of the Convention from the members of United Nations and so this Convention came into force on 14th December 2005 and has so far been ratified by 130 countries, including Pakistan and India. Admittedly, the UNCAC was the first internationally-designed Convention to curb massive Corruption caused by the highest officials of the member countries. This Convention was so designed with an objective to forge international front against the tentacles of spreading corruption. This was an ostensible purpose to curb outflow of the looted money by the public representatives and high officials of poor countries who were plundering the resources of such countries. Apart from the aforesaid first breakthrough in the field of money-laundering, a number of other conventions were formulated before this Convention which are being described as follows:-
1. OECD Convention ratified by 37 countries.
2. United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2003.
3. Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (1997)
4. African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption and Related Offences (2003)
Pursuant to the objectives of the aforesaid Conventions, the United Nations created a number of organizations named below:-
1. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC);
2. Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (World Bank) (StAR);
3. International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR),
4. the International Association for Asset Recovery (IAAR);
5. Transparency International (TI);
6. Financial Action Task Force (FATF);
7. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE);
8. U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre (U4).
In addition to the aforesaid organizations, following regional networks were organized to assist the objectives of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)
1. Camden Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (CARIN);
2. Commonwealth Network of Contact Persons;
3. Corruption Hunters Network;
4. European Judicial Network;
5. Hemispheric Information Exchange Network for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition of the Organization of American States;
6. Ibero-American legal Assistance Network.
In order to put into operational strategies, organizations were designed for the purpose of retrieval of the money looted from poor countries and stashed in banking sectors of the safe havens and for repatriation of such identified money back into the coffers of impoverished countries. A copy of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is attached with this petition. In order to provide a consolidated book of these conventions and applicable laws, a Hand Book was prepared under the aegis of Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (StAR) by Jean-Pierre Brun, Larissa Gray, Clive Scott and Kevin M Stephenson. A copy of the Asset Recovery Hand Book A Guide for Practitioners is attached with this petition.
8. The above narrative of legal infrastructure devised by the United Nations and its agencies will be incomplete without making reference to such efforts made by the Confederal Parliament of Switzerland. It may be noted, at this juncture, that the Swiss Confederation had been, for a long time, the safest haven where the money laundered from poor countries was stashed in their banks and was utilized in scientific development of Switzerland and improvement of the quality of life of the Swiss citizens. The aforesaid banks were organized on the basis of such laws, which promoted foolproof system of secretiveness. These Swiss banks had evolved such banking practices under the shadow of which the accounts were opened in a highly surreptitious manner i.e. code numbers were issued to the depositors which were only known to them, so much so that even sons and daughters of the accounts holders had no knowledge of such codes. History repeats itself. The tax evaders, kleptocratic politicians, dishonest bureaucrats and even greedy people, from the armed forces from western countries, namely, USA UK Germany, France and other highly developed countries manoeuvred to deposit black money, money received through kickbacks and so on so forth in the banks of Switzerland. These illegal inflows of stolen money adversely affected even the economies of the afore-noted developed countries. Confronted with this situation and alarmed with their staggering economies, these countries brought pressure on Switzerland and forced them to lift veil on total secrecy over their banking transactions. It was in these circumstances of intimidation and pressure by the western countries when Swiss Parliament passed a Federal act on the restitution of assets of politically exposed persons obtained by unlawful means on 1st October 2010. This Act was known as the Restitution of Illicit Assets Act (RIAA). This Act has 15 sections, which provided solution to the problems being faced by rich countries of the American hemisphere and Europe. A copy of the English translation of the Act by Swiss authorities, downloaded from Internet, is attached with this petition at page ___________.
This Act opened a Pandora’s box where under the people of poor countries started moving applications for initiation of process of repatriation of money laundered and stashed in these banks. Now even the developed countries like U SA started action for repatriation of money laundered from their country. It was on March 13, 2011, when Swiss banks asked their government to reject mass requests for such information in order to retain as much laundered moneys as possible. This news too disclosed that a treaty between India and Switzerland to seek details of illicit wealth stashed away by the Indians in Swiss banks is before the Swiss Parliament. A copy of this news published in some Indian newspaper, dated March 13, 2011, attached with the petition. A number of papers were written on these new Swiss laws and one of the significant articles, “New Swiss law on recovery of “illicit assets” from 1 February 2011” was written by Jonathan Wheeler and Jade-Alexandra Fearns. A copy of this article is attached with this petition. A copy of another document of importance titled “September 2010—The Economic Significance of the Swiss Financial Centre” is also being attached with this petition. An article by Faisal Khan on Corruption in Pakistan is another document of significance. A copy of this Article attached herewith. The fragrance, so generated by the Swiss new legal dispensation, spread in the world like fire and a great Pakistani scholar “Ibn-e-Umeed” undertook a review of the afore stated Swiss laws, completely analysed its ramifications on kleptocreatic governance in Pakistan, came up with horrifying conclusions and suggested solutions. The relevant part of the Article by Ibn-e-Umeed, is being reproduced as follows:-
“According to the 2010 Private Banking Survey by consultancy McKinsey, Switzerland last year experienced net outflows worth 1 percent of its private banking assets. Those were mainly attributable to transfers by scared European clients. Switzerland continued to enjoy inflows from Asia, Latin American, Russia and Eastern Europe, confirming its global attraction as a wealth management centre, McKinsey said. Some of Switzerland’s oldest private banks, date back to more than 200 years ago and its polyglot private bankers are used to trading in any currency and any product.
The influential and rich Pakistanis, who are mostly crook, corrupt and tax evaders, have hidden accounts in Switzerland. The enormous money looted by indomitable civil-military bureaucracy and greedy businessmen-cum-politicians is also parked in Swiss banks. If advantage of the RIAA is taken, they will not be able to hide their untaxed Swiss bank accounts any more. Pakistani tax authorities can be directed by the apex court to seek information under Avoidance of Double Taxation and Exchange of Tax Information with the Swiss government.
After passage of RIAA, Switzerland cannot restrict its administrative assistance to cases of presumed tax fraud (which involves the falsification of documents). It is legally bound to provide information where tax evasion is suspected - in other words, where money not declared to national tax authorities has been deposited in a Swiss bank. Pakistani corrupt officials and politicians have been transferring huge amounts of money to Swiss banks. This money, generated through illegal activities by avaricious politicians, corrupt bureaucrats, Jihadi-terrorist-drug-for-arms networks and greedy businessmen, was never disclosed to tax department. Pakistan is facing a grim challenge of measuring and countering enormous revenue leakages and black money-its size estimated to be three times the regular economy. Till today, no effort appears to have been made by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Federal Investigating Agency (FIA, Anti-Narcotics Force (AFN) or Narcotics Control Board to conduct an in-depth study to quantify the magnitude of black money and amounts shifted to Swiss banks. According to an estimate, it is not less than 200 billion dollars-four times the external debt of Pakistan.
According to an estimate, the money lying in Swiss banks of Pakistanis is to the tune of $200 billion, which appears plausible as parallel economy is growing at an alarming rate of 20% per annum. Every fifth rupee transacted in Pakistan is black. The volume of black money generated in the year 2008-09 alone was not less than $40 billion. This is still not final. It does not account for kickbacks in arms deals, foreign trade, smuggling and foreign exchange racketeering, apart from trade in narcotics and other criminal activities by terrorist Jihadi outfits. According to various studies, the underground money generated through smuggling in goods and narcotics trade alone is estimated at $50 billion.
Pakistani policy-makers must realize that a sound development strategy seeks to reduce the size of the informal economy and bring into the open resources that lie in the form of black money. Apart from such mechanisms as foreign exchange and tax amnesties; and exercises such as demonetisations, taxation is used as a tool to tap the resources inherent in these areas. According to a conservative estimate, tax evaders in Pakistan annually deprive the country of revenue of over $10 billion, but the government, instead of putting them behind bars, encourages their unlawful activities.
Our politicians, policy-makers and tax managers during the last many years have miserably failed to tap untaxed money despite borrowing a whopping US $100 million for Tax Administration Reforms, Dubai, Johannesburg and elsewhere.
A survey carried out by a reputed Lahore-based academic institution a few years back, as a part of tax reformation drive, concluded that out of every Rs100 taxable amount, the highest amount of Rs38, of course, goes to the taxpayer, a typical Pakistani businessman.
The taxman, an officer in Income Tax Department, gets Rs16 for his services to the tax payer in helping him to conceal his real income. The middleman, who is a tax practitioner, advisor or a lawyer gets Rs10. If these estimates are taken as true, then the annual national tax loss for fiscal year 2009-2010 was not less than Rs500 billion—half of which is transferred to Swiss banks.
It is not possible to determine the precise amount of revenue loss and size of black money or shifting of money abroad. Revenue loss on account of smuggling of Afghan transit trade alone, as estimated by the World Bank, amounted to $35 billion. Apart from direct monetary costs of corruption, both Pakistani and international literature pinpoint many other costs, such as loss of government credibility, spread of injustice, distortions in resources allocation and loss of foreign and local investment.
When the presence of black money is so apparent, its criminal accumulation and generation are not revealed and the offenders punished, is a question, which continues to baffle honest citizens. They ask, whether it is on account of lack of political will, or rampant corruption, or collusion of tax dodgers and corrupt tax administrators, or the weak political system, or the ineffectiveness together with defectiveness of laws, or the pervasive stubborn indifference of the citizens towards their duties?
The ugliest face of black money emerges in the corridors of power, political as well as administrative. Pakistan is passing through the worst financial crisis of its history, i.e the crisis of resources manifested in the huge revenues of Rs500 billion for rehabilitations of the afectees. Revenue has to be collected from the rich and mighty. Money looted by them parked in Swiss banks-should be brought back using the unique nature of the RIAA.
The government, therefore, needs to introduce asset-seizure legislation to confiscate the mammoth reservoir of the untaxed black money-huge chunk of which is lying in the Swiss banks. It is now time to seek information from the Swiss government as has been done by India, the US, EU countries and many other governments in Asia and Africa. In case swift action is not taken to seize money and property arising out of corruption, tax evasion, narco-arms-trade and other unlawful activities, the day is not far when our tolerance towards ill-gotten wealth leads to self-annihilation.”
A copy of this Article is attached with this petition.
9. With the march of time and with the supremacy of fundamentals of unbridled capitalism, vicious system, of laundering of black money from impoverished countries to highly developed countries, became so rampant and so pervasive in global economy that with the demise of the era of Hosni Mubarak, it came to light that the former Egyptian President had looted money indiscriminately from Egypt and stashed it in the banks of safe haven countries, named above. Confronted with his downfall and alarmed by the re-action of global community, Swiss Bankers Association, immediately took initiative, sent a delegation to meet the new rulers of Egypt and proclaimed that the Swiss Government would freeze all the black money laundered by the Egyptian President and stashed in their banks and would take all necessary steps to return these frozen assets to the people of Egypt. It can be safely stated in the context of the above laudable development that the guilty conscience of the Swiss Government awoke and decided to return the black money of Hosni Mubarak to the people of Egypt irrespective of rigmorals of the United Nation’s Convention UNCAC and the Swiss law, “Restitution of Illicit Assets Act (RIAA). A copy of this News, published, in the Daily News, Egypt, dated May 11, 2011, and downloaded from Internet, is attached with this petition.
Similarly, one more document, downloaded from the Internet is amazingly instructive. This document shows that the Indian elites have laundered almost 1.5 trillion dollars from India and stashed in the Swiss Banks. A copy of this document is attached with the petition. A brave person, like WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange, in an interview with an Indian newspaper, disclosed that the Indian businessmen had stolen almost 1.5 trillion dollars from the Indian economy and kept it in the safe havens of Switzerland, USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia, UA E and other countries. It seems very necessary to note that the aforesaid disclosures have led to unprecedented agitation under the leadership of Anna Hazare, who is emphatically asking the Indian Parliament to pass an extremely effective and efficacious law for retrieval of the money looted from India and kept in the safe lockers of the safe haven countries.
10. From the afore-going narration, it becomes abundantly clear that the vicious spirit of bribery, corruption, jobbery, patronage etc has so gravely pervaded the political parties and institutions of the state with the result of which Islamic Republic of Pakistan has become financially emasculated and become almost dysfunctional by the decades of loot and plunder initiated from 1950 to 2011. The state of Pakistan has been so emasculated that the structure of the state is being kept alive with the help of loans obtained from IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Paris Club and other financial lending institutions. An internal study further reveals that out of these loans only less than 50% of the sanctioned loans reach Pakistan while the remaining are re-directed to the banks of safe haven countries. This downslide is so grave and so enormous that Pakistan has to pay such a great amount by way of interest, which is more than our defence spending. No adequate money in budgetary allocation is available for the purpose of healthcare and education. The worst part of this saga is that the leaders of political parties, senior members of bureaucracy, senior members of the armed forces and businessmen are not free from the blame of this state of affairs. A number of institutions, in highly developed countries, like Transparency International, Global Financial Integrity and other institutions on corruption are undertaking massive research on the subject of corruption and decline of the state in Pakistan. A number of websites are exhibiting details of money laundered by politicians, generals, bureaucrats, businessmen from Pakistan stashing in foreign banks and details of the real estate properties purchased by the aforesaid segments of the society. Irrespective of the above researches, the petitioner and his legal team has not been able to find out mathematical quantity of the money laundered by the afore-noted kleptocracts.
Approximately, it is estimated by a number of researchers that more than two hundred billion dollars, looted from Pakistan, are stashed only in the banks of Switzerland and more than this money is kept in the banks of safe haven countries. Irrespective of all these researchers, different websites of different institutions on Internet are replete with pictures of the properties allegedly purchased by these kleptocracts in the aforesaid countries. Guided by the principle of pre-pondering caution, the petitioner is not in a position to say with certainty that these pictures and information on such websites are mathematically correct or exaggerated. In the context of the above situation, the petitioner has not attached such pictures with this petition. This Hon’ble Court may call for researchers to seek information from all the available websites of different institutions engaged in the research on money laundering. The afore-noted are the circumstances which prompted the petitioner to beseech suo moto jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution.
11. That the requisite court fee of Rs250 has been affixed on this petition.
PRAYER
(i) That the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, UN Headquarters, New York, be asked to initiate action/investigation under the machinery designed by the UN known as Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) Initiative, Washington, USA in consonance with Chapter V, VI, VII and VIII of the United Nations Convention against corruption.
(ii) That the investigative unit of the StAR be directed to make thorough investigations in the matter of black money laundered from the soil of Pakistan and stashed in the banks of safe haven countries, mentioned above and make arrangements for restitution of so quantified looted money from Pakistan and stashed in the coffers of the afore-stated countries.
(iii) That the aforesaid countries be directed to find out the money so laundered and so kept in the banks of the aforesaid countries and devise strategies for its restitution to the Government of Pakistan. This Hon’ble Court may ask, through letter of request, the ambassadors of the aforesaid countries/respondents Nos9 to 18 to activate anti-corruption agencies in their countries in accordance with the principles of fairness, decency and humanity incorporated in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the Stolen Assets Recover (StAR) Initiative, Washington, US and submit reports to this Hon’ble Court with respect to the real estate properties purchased by politicians, retired members of bureaucracy, retired members of armed forces of Pakistan on the soil of their countries so as to uphold the flag of rule of law, humanity and decency. The ambassadors of the above countries represent the highly developed nations, which are economically affluent and are suffering from stigma of money laundering for their apparent prosperity. This court may, through letter of request, ask them to devise strategies of fairness, decency not only within their countries but in the whole globe.
(iv) Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan/Respondent No19 be directed to collect data regarding the assets declared by the parliamentarians and submit its report as to whether these assets have been made through legal or illegal means. Furthermore Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan be directed to ask the parliamentarians to furnish the details of assets held by them in the safe haven countries. The Co-Chairperson, Bilalwal Zardari/Respondent No20; Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, President, PML-N/Respondent No21; Ch Shujaat Hussain, President, PML-Q/Respondent No22; Dr Farooq Sattar, Convener, MQM/Respondent No23; Asfandyar Wali Khan, President, ANP/Respondent No24; Maulana Fazalur Rehman, Amir, JUI/Respondent No25; Syed Munawar Hassan, Amir, Jamaat-e-Islami/Respondent No26; and Imran Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf/Respondent No27, be directed to furnish lists of cash and assets held by them in bank accounts as well as real estates purchased by its members and office bearers outside Pakistan in the aforesaid countries.
(v) That this Hon’ble Court may itself constitute a commission of truth comprising retired judges of superior judiciary and retired members of civil service whose integrity has been beyond any doubt with a direction to undertake investigation into the assets of politicians, retired members of bureaucracy, retired members of armed forces, businessmen and judges, in and outside Pakistan so that a system of transparency, accountability and necessary legal infrastructure can be designed for seeking restitution of the money laundered from the soil of Pakistan and deposited in the safe haven countries.
(vi) The Government of Pakistan be directed to enter into agreement/laws of mutual assistance to unearth and quantify money laundered from Pakistan and deposited in the safe heaven countries. It is repeated that the expression of “safe haven countries.” means “Switzerland, USA, U.K., Germany, France, Canada, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia, UAE.
(vii) Any other legal strategy, which this Hon’ble Court deems fit be devised, to save Pakistan from financial bankruptcy and save it from the clutches of international financial lending institutions like IMF, WB, Asian Development and others.
Affidavit of service
AFFIDAVIT OF Mehr Khan Malik, AOR,
Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad
I, the above named deponent do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as under:-
That I have served the respondents with Notice, sent under Registered Post about filing of the titled petition under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution, on behalf of the petitioner in this Hon’ble Court at Islamabad.
Verified on oath at Islamabad, this _27th day of August, 2011.
(Mehr Khan Malik)
Advocate-on-Record,
Supreme Court of Pakistan,
Islamabad
Notice to:
1. Government of Pakistan through Secretary Establishment, Secretariat, Islamabad.
2. Government of Pakistan through Secretary Defence, Islamabad.
3. The United Nations through its Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, New York, U.S.A
4. Swiss Bankers Association, Aeschenplatz-7, 2nd Floor, 4002, Basel, Switzerland
5. The Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) Initiative Secretariat, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington D. C. 20433, U.S.A.
6. Global Financial Integrity, 1319 18th Street, NW Suite 200, Washington DC 20036, U.S.A.
7. Transparency International, Pakistan through its Chairman, 5-C, 2nd Floor, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase VII, D.H.A., Karachi.
8. Transparency International Secretariat, Alt-Moabit 96, 10559, Berlin, Germany.
9. His Excellency the Ambassador of Switzerland in Pakistan, Islamabad
10. His Excellency the Ambassador of the United States of America in Pakistan, Islamabad.
11. His Excellency the Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Pakistan, Islamabad.
12. His Excellency the Ambassador of Canada in Pakistan, Islamabad
13. His Excellency the Ambassador of Germany in Pakistan, Islamabad.
14. His Excellency the Ambassador of France in Pakistan, Islamabad.
15. His Excellency the Ambassador of Spain in Pakistan, Islamabad
16. His Excellency the Ambassador of South Korea in Pakistan, Islamabad.
17. His Excellency the Ambassador of Malaysia in Pakistan, Islamabad.
18. His Excellency the Ambassador of United Arab Emirates in Pakistan, Islamabad.
19. Election Commission of Pakistan through its Secretary, Islamabad
20. Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians through Makhdoom Amin Fahim, House No.1, Street No.85, G-6/4, Islamabad.
21. Pakistan Muslim League (N) through its President, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, H. No. 20-H, Street 10, Sector F-8/3, Islamabad.
22. Pakistan Muslim League (Q) through its President, Ch. Shuja’at Hussain, Central Secretariat, 4, Margalla Road, Sector F-7/3, Islamabad.
23. Muthidda Qaumi Movement through its Convener, 494/8 Azizabad, Karachi.
24. Awami National Party through its President, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Baacha Khan Markaz, Pajaggi Road, Peshawar.
25. Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam (F) through its Ameer, Maulana 3Fazal-ur-Rehman, Jamia-al-Moarif, Al-Sharia, Dera Ismail Khan.
26. Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan through its Ameer Syed Munawar Hassan, Mansoora, Multan Road, Lahore
27. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, through its Chairman, Imran Khan, H. No.2, Street No. 84, Sector G-6/4, Islamabad.
Please take notice that I have filed the titled petition, under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution in the Supreme Court of Pakistan at Islamabad on behalf of the petitioners.
Issued at Islamabad this 27th day of August 2011.
(Mehr Khan Malik)
Advocate-on-Record,
Supreme Court of Pakistan,
Islamabad
APPLICATION under Order XXXIII, Rule 1 and 6 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980, read with section 151 of the C. P. C.
The applicant/petitioner respectfully submits as under:-
1. The applicant/petitioner has filed a constitutional petition (as a human rights case} under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution (1973). In this petition, apart from Government of Pakistan, the United Nation, through its Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon/Respondent No3, Swiss Bankers, Association/Respondent No4, The Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) Initiative, Washington D.C./Respondent No5, Global Financial Integrity, Washington DC/Respondent No6, Transparency International, Pakistan/Respondent No.7, Transparency International Secretariat, Germany/Respondent No8, The Ambassador of the Switzerland in Pakistan/Respondent No9, the Ambassador of the USA in Pakistan/Respondent No 10, the Ambassador of the UK in Pakistan/Respondent No11, the Ambassador of Canada in Pakistan/Respondent No.12, the Ambassador of Germany/respondent No.13, the Ambassador of France//respondent No14, the Ambassador of Spain in Pakistan/Respondent No.15, the Ambassador of South Korea in Pakistan/Respondent No.16, the Ambassador of Malaysia in Pakistan/Respondent 17 and the Ambassador of the UAE in Pakistan/Respondent No18 have been impleaded as parties. Respondent No3 is the chief executive of the United Nations, while respondent No5 is an institution designed to investigate, quantify and identity the money laundered from poor countries and stashed in rich countries. With the march of time, the aforesaid countries have awakened to the realities on the globe and are helping impoverished countries to make claims for the black money received through kickbacks and being retained in the banks of the safe haven countries, Switzerland, USA, Canada, UK Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia and UAE. The United Nations has devised comprehensive strategies for the restitution of illegally-gotten money of the poor countries and the afore-stated countries and United Nations has arranged for repatriation of such money from the banks of these countries. It appears that sanity and justice is coming to the rescue of the poor countries like Pakistan. The aforesaid countries have evolved comprehensive system of investigation and identification of the looted money from the poor countries and are also helping these countries to regain such moneys.
2. Respondents Nos3 to 18 have been impleaded in this petition in consonance with their noble cause and working for high values. No summon or order can be sent to these respondents for appearance before this Hon’ble Court. In view of the above, this application is being filed for the purpose of issuing them letter of request by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to respondents Nos3 to 18 for the purpose of helping Pakistan and setting in motion machinery of the United Nations and their own anti-corruption agencies for investigation and identification of the looted money from Pakistan and being stashed in the above safe haven countries. The United Nations has full authority to undertake such investigations under its institutions like StAR (Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative). Pakistan has to pay foreign loan of approximately more than sixty billion dollars while approximately more than 400 billion dollars, looted from Pakistan, are being kept in the banks of the aforesaid countries. Now the situation has reached such a pitch that President Obama has asked the Swiss Government to give a list of those businessmen who have laundered money from the USA and stashed in the banks of Switzerland. This is the most laudable precedent and the people of Pakistan want to make similar request to the United Nations, investigative institutions and all other officials starting from respondents Nos. 9 to 18.
PRAYER
Under the circumstances given above, it is respectfully submitted that letters of request be graciously sent from the Supreme of Pakistan to respondents Nos. 3 to 18 requesting them to help the down-trodden and impoverished people of Pakistan to identify and quantity the moneys looted from Pakistan through kickbacks, commission, corruption, jobbery and nepotism by the kleptocratic politicians, kleptocratic, bureaucrats, kleptocratic businessmen, kleptocratic members of the armed forces, kleptocratic members of superior judiciary and stashed in the safe haven countries, namely, Switzerland, U.S.A., Canada, U. K. Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia and U. A. E. and send report of their noble effort to the apex Court of Pakistan.
Concluded
