Islamabad: June 04, 2021: United Nations held general assembly special session against corruption yesterday.
This year marks fifteen years since the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) entered into force. While UNCAC have made some progress during this period, corruption continues to hold back development and deprive people of their rights in far too many places around the world.
The recent report of the High-Level Panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity has revealed that due to political and official corruption, as well as crime and tax evasion, trillions of dollars flow out of developing countries each year. Seven trillion dollars in stolen assets are parked in the financial “haven” countries and jurisdictions.
The flight of these vast resources from the developing countries is a principal cause of their under-development, poverty, inequality and political instability. Corruption is estimated to cost the world at least USD2.6 trillion annually, approximately 5 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
It is estimated that USD1.3 trillion is lost by developing countries to corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion each year. This is approximately nine times Official Development Assistance funding. In order to reinforce the global fight against corruption, it is vital to strengthen international cooperation and efficiently prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute corruption, as well as to apply effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties and recover criminal assets.
“Pakistan is pleased to note the increasing significance of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in addressing the common challenge of corruption at the global level. We continue to attach high priority to the fight against corruption. We believe that corruption should be prevented in all its forms and a culture of rejection of corrupt practices should be fostered at all levels. Asset recovery is one of the fundamental principles of the UNCAC. It is a matter of high priority for Pakistan. Despite explicit articles of the UNCAC, there seems to be an increase in the barriers and challenges in the process of asset recovery and return to the countries of origin. There is a growing concern that lack of political will, unnecessary delays, procedural complexities, bureaucratic hurdles, and legal barriers in requested States, as well as high cost of asset recovery, continue to impede effective international cooperation in the area of asset recovery. Importantly, the management, administration, and utilization of the returned assets is the right and responsibility of the requesting state and that the recovered assets should be returned without conditionalities and in full respect of the sovereign rights of the states of origin.”
Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, the Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB)
