ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has constituted a 13-member committee to prepare proposals for tracing and retrieving such assets held abroad by Pakistani citizens as have not been declared or were made without paying taxes in the homeland.
The committee, headed by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa, shall also submit suggestions to curb the menace of money laundering and transfer of money through Hawala and Hundi.
Other members of the committee include Finance Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Tariq Pasha, Senior Advocate Khalid Anwer, Advocate and Partner of “Huzaima and Ikram” Ikramul Haq, Senior Partner AF Ferguson and Co Syed Shabbar Zaidi, Barrister Mehmood Mandviwalla, Additional Attorney-General Muhammad Waqar Rana, business leaders Bashir Ali Muhammad and Tariq Paracha, Senior Banker Atif Bajwa, former FBR chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan and any other member co-opted by the committee.
A three-member bench of the top court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar resumed hearing in the suo motu notice regarding undeclared foreign assets of Pakistanis, and approved the Terms of References (ToRs) compiled by the members of committee.
The bench was informed that a suitable mechanism for offering incentives to Pakistani citizens to voluntarily declare their foreign assets and bring their money or moveable assets back to Pakistan had been suggested.
Waqar Rana informed the bench that ToRs were proposed to prepare the guidelines and evolve effective strategy to encourage the people to take out their money from foreign banks and bring it back to their home country.
The law officer read out the TORs that suggested various measures for the matter in hand.
The ToRs suggested a suitable mechanism to incentivise Pakistani citizens to voluntarily declare assets held abroad and bring them back to the country, or pay suitable amount of tax in case they wanted to keep the assets abroad.
