[DAWN] Pakistain is to hold talks with Switzerland...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
on a new tax treaty in the hope of retrieving state assets illegally stashed in the European country's secretive banking system.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the National Assembly that negotiations on a revised agreement with Switzerland would be held from August 26 to 28.
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
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
, 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 Pakistain's current tax agreement does not allow it to take advantage of the law.