Daily Times

Sir: While most Pakistanis are facing a financial crunch, a few powerful and corrupt people in our government have continued to bleed the country dry. They are the people in power, and such can create the laws that allow them to keep on circumventing the financial regulatory agencies present in our country.

A recent report submitted to the Supreme Court by a committee set up by the Governor of the State Bank revealed that over $15.25 Billion have been transferred from Pakistan by account holders through normal banking channels in the financial year 2016-17. However this number does include the money transferred through the unauthorized Hundi and Hawala system, which is prevalent across the country, and which could have contributed to over $40 billion of revenue leaving Pakistan during the same time period.

If the Election Commission of Pakistan had screened out the 200 dual nationality holders, and another 400 loan defaulters from amongst those who submitted nomination forms for the upcoming elections, this country might have finally been back on the road to recovery. However it was not meant to be, and as they have done for so many years, the various financial watchdogs in the country, like the State Bank, National Bank, FBR and FIA etc stood by without raising any objections as the leeches of our society were allowed to enter politics once again.

Everybody in this country is aware of the vast property empires that many of our political elite own in different countries around the globe. Even though many of these people hold foreign passports and permanent residential status, they still manage to get elected to public office. While the majority of expatriates living abroad are quite loyal to their country of birth, and continue to inject money in to its economy in the form of remittances, there are many who use their status to launder money or to evade taxes etc. The country continues to take on even more debts to pay back our loans, but they fall short of keeping a check over these nefarious forces that are the beneficiaries of this ‘financial terrorism’. It is high time these people should be brought to justice and such practices are brought to an end.

MALIK TARIQ ALI

Lahore

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.