Illicit outflows

Prime Minister Imran Khan repeated his call for ending the illicit flow of money from developing countries to tax havens and other developed countries. During his speech at the 15^th UN Conference on Trade and Development, Imran noted that the UN’s Financial Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI) Panel had estimated that around $7 trillion of global wealth was parked in tax havens around the world, an amount that is expected to grow by as much as $1 trillion every year. He accused rich countries of doing little to curb the practice, even though several rich countries are facing migrant crises that are directly related to the impact of such financial flows on the developing world.

Indeed, aside from war, the most significant drivers behind economic migration are poverty, crime, poor health and education, and lack of opportunities in migrants’ home countries. All of these can be addressed — at least partially — by a combination of good governance and the repatriation of stolen funds. In fact, most of the civil wars around the world would not have begun if the oppressed groups involved in the fighting felt their governments were investing in them.

Unfortunately, as important and accurate as Imran’s speech was, the timing could not have been worse, coming just days after several of his cabinet members and coalition partners were named in the Pandora Papers. While investigations into the 700-plus Pakistanis named in the leak have been ordered, Imran’s critics have reasonably pointed out that unlike the independent investigation Imran had demanded and got after the Panama Papers, he has assigned the task to government departments led by his own cabinet members, including Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, who is named in the leak. At the same time, we must credit Imran for swiftly setting up the probe panel and calling on other countries to investigate their citizens while giving money laundering and stolen national wealth the same attention and importance given to the climate crisis.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2021.

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