Pakistan Targets Swiss Bank Account Holders

FILE - A man walks past the shadow of the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse in Zurich.

Pakistan is trying to recover billions of dollars illegally stashed away in bank accounts in Switzerland.

Parliamentary secretary for finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan told VOA Urdu Service a proposed arrangement with Switzerland would help identify Pakistanis who illegally transferred their money to banks there.

He said the Swiss government has passed a law that would allow it to sign treaties with other countries through which Switzerland would provide information about illegally stashed foreign money.

“Many countries including Britain and India have ratified their double taxation treaties with the Swiss government," he said. "We also contacted the Swiss government in January this year to ratify our treaty with Switzerland and it agreed to do so.”

Switzerland says it returned $1.83 billion in illicitly-placed assets to countries involved in the Arab Spring regime changes, but Pakistan's current tax agreement does not allow for similar steps.

A Pakistani delegation will visit Switzerland in August to discuss a revised agreement.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP.