Plundered wealth: Senator Durrani asked to redraft petition on wealth recovery
SC also tells the petitioner to name beneficiaries of the loot.
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court on Monday asked Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani to redraft a petition for the recovery of plundered wealth with the names of those responsible and file it within two weeks.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry also asked the PML-Q senator and former information minister to exclude the name of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon from the list of respondents and to declare how much money was looted and where it is stashed. The chief justice said the law of assets declaration applies to election candidates, but there is a law on money laundering for illegal transfer of wealth to foreign banks.
Durrani had petitioned the apex court last month to initiate a process to recover looted wealth from leaders of political parties and others. He had prayed for requesting the UN secretary general to initiate action under the Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) initiative in consonance with provisions from the UN Convention against Corruption. He had also requested the court to direct secretary Election Commission to collect data on assets declared by parliamentarians and submit a report detailing their source.
He had contended that ruling coalition partners including Co-Chairperson PPP Bilawal Zardari, Convener MQM Dr Farooq Sattar as well as chiefs of opposition parties, including Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Munawwar Hassan and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan, should be directed to provide details of their assets and real estate purchased by party members outside Pakistan. It was unfortunate that neither the legislative, nor the executive nor members of civil society had collectively risen to stop the flight of resources from Pakistan, reads the petition. Durrani was a cabinet member in the Musharraf regime, but he said he had ‘hailed the victory of an independent judiciary’ after the restoration of the chief justice.
Talking to a group of journalists in Bahawalpur, his hometown, Durrani said foreign governments who always exhort Pakistan to ‘do more’ would now have to play a part in the recovery of Pakistan’s looted national wealth under UN laws. “The recovery of stolen wealth will help the country break the shackles of foreign slavery.”
With additional reporting by Kashif Zafar
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2011.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani to redraft a petition for the recovery of plundered wealth with the names of those responsible and file it within two weeks.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry also asked the PML-Q senator and former information minister to exclude the name of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon from the list of respondents and to declare how much money was looted and where it is stashed. The chief justice said the law of assets declaration applies to election candidates, but there is a law on money laundering for illegal transfer of wealth to foreign banks.
Durrani had petitioned the apex court last month to initiate a process to recover looted wealth from leaders of political parties and others. He had prayed for requesting the UN secretary general to initiate action under the Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) initiative in consonance with provisions from the UN Convention against Corruption. He had also requested the court to direct secretary Election Commission to collect data on assets declared by parliamentarians and submit a report detailing their source.
He had contended that ruling coalition partners including Co-Chairperson PPP Bilawal Zardari, Convener MQM Dr Farooq Sattar as well as chiefs of opposition parties, including Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Munawwar Hassan and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan, should be directed to provide details of their assets and real estate purchased by party members outside Pakistan. It was unfortunate that neither the legislative, nor the executive nor members of civil society had collectively risen to stop the flight of resources from Pakistan, reads the petition. Durrani was a cabinet member in the Musharraf regime, but he said he had ‘hailed the victory of an independent judiciary’ after the restoration of the chief justice.
Talking to a group of journalists in Bahawalpur, his hometown, Durrani said foreign governments who always exhort Pakistan to ‘do more’ would now have to play a part in the recovery of Pakistan’s looted national wealth under UN laws. “The recovery of stolen wealth will help the country break the shackles of foreign slavery.”
With additional reporting by Kashif Zafar
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2011.