Dar says talks in August to bring back $200bn in Swiss banks

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Ishaq Dar on Thursday said that talks will be held with Swiss authorities in August to bring back US$200 billion to Pakistan from banks in Switzerland. In a statement issued here, he said talks would be held in several phases and it could take three to four years to bring back the said money to the country. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senator said that economic situation was fragile when his party took charge of the affairs of the country. Dar said international monetary institutions had predicted that the country would be bankrupt in 2014, but the PML-N government with good performance proved that Pakistan has a strong economy. Former president Asif Ali Zardari, who left office last September after five years, was dogged throughout his tenure by corruption allegations involving Swiss banks dating back to the 1990s. He was accused along with his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, of using Swiss banks to launder $12 million of illegal kickbacks. Switzerland enacted a new law in 2011 to make it easier for countries to recover assets stolen by politicians and hidden in its banks. In early 2012, Switzerland said it had 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 it to take advantage of the law.