ISLAMABAD : February 3,2023:. In the first to meet an extraordinary demand of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) , the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a notification which makes it mandatory for all the gazetted officers of grade 17 to 22 to declare their assets within and outside Pakistan.
According to the notification issued on Friday, FBR will make sure that the details of the public servants’ assets in and outside Pakistan remain highly classified .
The fund’s visiting mission had put the demand to the official team of Pakistan that the government should move immediately to have a legal framework in place to make it mandatory that the senior public servants declare their assets inside and outside Pakistan.
Pakistan’s negotiating team initially resisted the demand on the pretext that it was an intrusion of the fund in its nitty, gritty of the government which was not its domain. However, seeing the seriousness of the fund’s team and urgency involved for Pakistan in resumption of IMF programme , the government finally agreed to accept this demand.
Pakistan’s top burocracy does not mention details of its assets at any.forum and it provides it a golden opportunity to accumulate assets beyond known source of income of the bureaucracy .
It’s generally presumed that Pakistan’s senior bureaucracy is involved in corruption and for the same Pakistan’s number in Perception of Corruption Index has gone up to 140 number.
Undoubtedly , corruption is rampant in Pakistan and its top bureaucracy is allegedly a player to money-making campaign.
Having a clear perception that Pakistan would not tackle the menace of corruption unless its bureaucracy does not become a role model for others to fight against the culture of corruption , the fund’s team put full pressure and finally it managed to compel the official team to accept its demand to make it mandatory for Pakistan government to issue a notification for making it mandatory for its senior bureaucracy to declare their assets in and out side Pakistan.
Acceptance of IMF can have every healthy impact on Pakistan’s society and help it address the issue of corruption on permanent basis .
