Finance Minister, Senator Ishaq Dar, chaired a meeting here on Saturday to review the steps being taken by the government to ensure good governance, improve transparency and to curb the menace of corruption. The Finance Minister said that Pakistan has recently become a signatory to the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
He said that Pakistan's fiscal regime stands strengthened by joining this Convention, which will bring further transparency and openness in governance. The Finance Minister directed that inter-ministerial consultation should be undertaken to determine Pakistan's readiness for accession to other international conventions and protocols which create transparency and openness in governance.
He said that OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an initiative of the UK Government should both be reviewed and recommendations should be made on Pakistan's preparedness for joining these multilateral fora. He said that accession to these multilateral agreements will augment Pakistan's efforts to combat fiscal crime and will further strengthen our compliance framework on anticorruption. The Finance Minister directed that all necessary steps for joining both fora should be undertaken expeditiously. The meeting was attended by Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Massod, Special Assistant to Finance Minister Tariq Pasha and other senior officials of the Finance Ministry.-PR