Data on 33 companies sought from NCA: Shahzad

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar Sunday said the government had sought the details of 33 companies from the British National Crime Agency (NCA) while talks were on with Switzerland.

These 33 companies have been mentioned in the PanamaLeaks. Shahzad told a media conference here that he will visit Britain next week, as corruption cases were being reopened for which they need the help of authorities including the National Crime Agency (NCA). Shahzad said he would also be meeting his NCA counterpart and present before him a list of pending corruption cases. He pointed out that an agreement with the British government to reopen corruption cases was already in place.

These cases, he explained, also included one against Ishaq Dar. He said mechanisms were being streamlined and Pakistan would also seek the foreign law-enforcement agencies’ help, where needed.

He said the government had finalised a broad-based mutual legal assistance draft law to obtain evidence from foreign jurisdictions about financial crimes and mega corruption cases involving Pakistanis.

"We have increased the pace to counter challenges such as money laundering and corruption in mega projects, as they are inter-linked," he said. He referred to the Multan metro project, which led to $30 million money laundering scam, which was white-washed during the previous regime.

Shahzad said matters pertaining to corruption were not confined to the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) anymore and now a joint investigation team (JIT) was also looking into these cases.

He said a task force of officials from the SBP, NAB, FBR and FIA and other related departments was working at the Prime Minister Office under him.

He pointed out that the FIA was given a free hand and it was coming up with revelations like the vendors and rickshaw wallahs having fake accounts with billions of transactions.

This was how black money was maintained and then laundered, he added.

All these institutions, he maintained, already existed but were not allowed by the political leaders and rulers to function independently, as the laws were there but never followed.

He emphasised that during the last 12 to 15 years, no efforts were made to carry out international asset tracing, whereas even in the region India had achieved a lot while China made recovery from over 400 persons.

“But we in these years not traced even a single case,” he said.

He noted that talks were under way with the United Arab Emirates and China for agreements to bring back money taken out of the country through illegal channels.

"We have inherited nothing from the previous government except for an economic crisis. Pakistan's foreign debt of Rs30,000 billion and economic problems are a result of faulty policies of the previous government," Shahzad Akbar said and lamented that political intervention had destroyed state institutions.

He lamented while Pakistan was fast moving from the FATF's grey list to black list, the former leaders were least bothered about it.

Shahzad made it clear that the government would pursue any traces of black money.

"We will contact the governments of all countries where we find traces of illegally transferred money," he declared.

Replying to a question, Special Assistant to PM on Media Iftikhar Durrani said to facilitate the media in access to information, the right to information law would be strengthened.

He emphasised that the media should get the information verified before its dissemination.

He rejected a report about putting the names of Khawaja Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique on the ECL.