ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan has decided to examine the possibility of withholding a major portion of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption’s (UNCAC) Country Review Report, six months after committing to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a full disclosure of the report.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a committee led by the law minister with a mandate to review whether the report should be published in its entirety or should only its executive summary be released, said government sources.
The decision has been taken days before the IMF is scheduled to seek the implementation status on Pakistan’s commitment to fully publish the report.
An IMF review mission which began interactions on Monday for the second loan tranche of $1 billion would seek an update this Friday on Pakistan’s commitments before reaching a staff level agreement.
This time, the IMF is separately meeting with the State Bank of Pakistan in Karachi and with the federal government officials in Islamabad. During the first day, the fiscal related data was discussed with the IMF, including the implementation status on the fiscal targets for the first half.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week constituted a seven-member Cabinet Committee on the UNCAC Country Review Report. The committee comprises three federal ministers, three secretaries and a director general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Pakistan ratified the UNCAC in 2007 and its two review cycles have been completed under the convention. The country has a right to publish a full report or print only the executive summary.
However, the country had committed with the IMF in September last year that it would fully publish the report once its completed.
“We will issue a federal regulation by end-September 2024 to formalize our intention to publish the full and complete UNCAC review report immediately after the review process is completed,” said the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies that Pakistan signed as part of the $7 billion deal package.
Under the same deal, the IMF had dispatched the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment Mission to Pakistan last month, which met with the chief justice of Pakistan to review the appointment of judges and other judicial matters.
The corruption assessment mission will also finalize its assessment and its report will be published by July 2025, according to the $7 billion deal.
The sources said that the Law Ministry had reported the matter to the federal cabinet last month and it sought the cabinet’s direction on the matter. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has tasked his Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar to review whether to publish a full or partial report.
Among the other members are Minister for Information Atta Tarar, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervaiz Malik, now elevated as federal minister, secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, secretary Finance Division, secretary Law and Justice Division and a DG NAB.
The cabinet has mandated the committee to examine the country review report of Pakistan under the second review cycle of the UNCAC.
Its second and most important mandate is that the committee would “examine the options available for Pakistan to publish the full report or its executive summary.
Till the filing of the story, the minister for information did not comment on the question about the need for holding back parts of the report when Islamabad had already committed to publish the full report.
The committee is tasked to submit its recommendation on publication of the report or its executive summary for consideration of the cabinet by March 13, which coincides with the end of the IMF Mission to Pakistan.
A government official said that Nigeria and Qatar had conducted Pakistan’s anti-corruption assessment and submitted a voluminous report. He said some of the recommendations of the report are already under implementation.
These are related to overlapping the work of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB and bringing improvement in the working of various regulatory bodies.
The report has been prepared with the help of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC). The expert teams normally prepare 80300 pages’ review report and an executive summary of 7-12 pages.
The country review report and executive summary are sent to the focal point for approval. In cases of disagreement, the reviewers and the contact point engage in dialogue to arrive at a consensual final report, which is published in full only with the agreement of the country under review.
The executive summary, once finalized upon agreement, is translated into the six official languages of the United Nations and made available as a document of the Implementation Review Group.
The second cycle of the review report covers topics about preventive measures and asset recovery. The Ministry of Law and Justice has already published the anti-corruption task force review report and is developing a plan to implement the recommended actions.
The anti-corruption task force had unanimously recommended that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should notify rules pertaining to declaration of assets of civil servants serving in Basic Pay Scale 17-22 and their spouses. The IMF has now asked to make it a law, which is pending for approval.
The task force had also recommended amending the Elections Act to mandate the non-elected advisers and special assistants to the prime minister to furnish their statement of assets and liabilities.
It had recommended making necessary amendments in the NAB law and the FIA act to ensure clear mandate definition, prepare a joint offence list and establish coordination mechanisms between the two agencies to work harmoniously on the offences on which both agencies have jurisdiction.
There was also a proposal to provide training on jurisdictional boundaries to officers of NAB, the FIA and the provincial anti-corruption departments.
The task force recommended repatriating investigating officers of the FIA posted at airports for processing immigration and task the said responsibility to any other force.
To instill a culture of integrity among officials and educate the public at large on their right to seek disclosure of public information under the Right to Information Act and on the regulatory framework in place to appropriately report any corrupt practice to the appropriate forum, a public campaign had been recommended by the task force.
