Islamabad:
Pakistan has decided to examine the possibility of retaining an important part of the United Nations Convention against the Corruption Country Review Report (UNCAC), six months after committing to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a complete dissemination of the report.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a committee led by the Minister of Law with a mandate to review whether the report must be published in its entirety or only if their executive summary is published, government sources said.
The decision has been made days before the IMF is scheduled to seek the state of implementation on Pakistan’s commitment to completely publish the report.
An IMF review mission that began the interactions on Monday for the second loan section of $ 1 billion would seek an update this Friday about Pakistan’s commitments before reaching an agreement at the personnel level.
This time, the IMF is gathering separately with the State Bank of Pakistan in Karachi and with federal government officials in Islamabad. During the first day, the prosecutor related to the IMF, including the state of implementation in the fiscal objectives for the first half.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif constituted a seven -member cabinet committee last week in the review report of the UNCAC country. The Committee includes three federal ministers, three secretaries and a general director of the National Office of Responsibility (NAB).
Pakistan ratified the UNCAC in 2007 and its two review cycles have been completed by virtue of the Convention. The country has the right to publish a full report or print only the executive summary.
However, the country had committed to the IMF in September of last year that would completely publish the report once it has been completed.
“We will issue a federal regulation at the end of September 2024 to formalize our intention to publish the full and complete review of the UNCAC immediately after the review process is completed,” said the memorandum of the economic and financial policies that Pakistan signed as part of the $ 7 billion agreement package.
According to the same agreement, the IMF had sent the Government and Corruption Diagnostic Evaluation Mission to Pakistan last month, who met with the president of the president of Pakistan to review the appointment of judges and other judicial matters.
The corruption evaluation mission will also end its evaluation and its report will be published in July 2025, according to the $ 7 billion agreement.
The sources said the Ministry of Law had informed the matter to the federal cabinet last month and that sought the direction of the cabinet on the matter. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has commissioned his Minister of Law Azam Nazir Tarar to check whether to publish a full or partial report.
Among the other members are the Minister of Information ATA Tarar, Minister of State for Finance and Income, Ali Pervaiz Malik, now elevated as Federal Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Division of Division of Secretary of Law and Justice of Secretary and Dgis of Justice and a DG NAB.
The cabinet has ordered the committee to examine the review report of the country of Pakistan under the second cycle of review of the UNCAC.
His second and most important mandate is that the committee “would examine the options available for Pakistan to publish the full report or his executive summary.
Until the presentation of the story, the Minister of Information did not comment on the question about the need to contain parts of the report when Islamabad had already promised to publish the full report.
The committee is responsible for presenting its recommendation on the publication of the report or its executive summary for the consideration of the cabinet before March 13, which coincides with the end of the IMF mission to Pakistan.
A government official said that Nigeria and Qatar had carried out the anti -corruption evaluation of Pakistan and presented a bulky report. He said that some of the recommendations of the report are already under implementation.
These are related to the overlap of the Federal Research Agency (FIA) and NAB and cause an improvement in the operation of several regulatory bodies.
The report has been prepared with the help of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Expert teams normally prepare the 8-300 pages review report and an executive summary of 7-12 pages.
The country review report and the executive summary are sent to the focal point for approval. In cases of disagreement, the reviewers and the point of contact participate in the dialogue to reach a final consensual report, which is published in its entirety only with the country’s agreement under review.
The executive summary, once the agreement is completed, translates into the six official languages of the United Nations and is made available as a document of the implementation review group.
The second cycle of the review report covers issues on preventive measures and asset recovery. The Ministry of Law and Justice has already published the review report of the Anti -Corruption Work Group and is developing a plan to implement the recommended actions.
The Anti-Corruption Working Group had unanimously recommended that the Federal Income Board (FBR) notified the rules related to the declaration of assets of public officials that serve on the basic exit scale 17-22 and its spouses. The IMF has now asked to be a law, which is pending for approval.
The task force had also recommended the modification of the Elections Law to demand that special advisors and assistants not elected to the prime minister to provide their declaration of assets and liabilities.
He had recommended making amendments necessary in the NAB Law and the FIA Law to guarantee a clear definition of the mandate, prepare a list of joint crimes and establish coordination mechanisms between the two agencies to work harmoniously in the crimes on which both agencies have jurisdiction.
There was also a proposal to provide training on jurisdictional limits to NAB officers, FIA and provincial anti -corruption departments.
The working group recommended repatriating the FIA investigating officers published at airports to process immigration and the task of said responsibility to any other force.
To instill a culture of integrity between officials and educate the general public about their right to seek the dissemination of public information under the Law of Information and on the Regulatory Framework to properly inform any corrupt practice to the appropriate forum, the task force had recommended a public campaign.
