ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan has given deadline of two weeks to atask force set up to recover unlawfully acquired foreign assets.

Task Force has to suggest a way forward for expeditious retrieval of theill-gotten wealth.

The task force on Monday held its first meeting where different governmentdepartments apprised the body about the current status of pendinginvestigations of suspected money laundering and financial fraud cases,said the officials who attended the meeting.

Special Assistant to PM on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar chaired themeeting, which was attended by officials from the National AccountabilityBureau (NAB), the Finance Ministry, the State Bank of Pakistan, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs, the Auditor General of Pakistan, the FederalInvestigation Agency (FIA), the Securities and Exchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP), the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Federal Board ofRevenue (FBR).

It was an introductory meeting where no major decision was made. Thechairman directed all the departments to initiate the work for bringingback the untaxed and illegal assets. No date has been given for the nextmeeting.

The prime minister has declared retrieval of the hidden offshore assets ashis topmost priority and promised to bring back the wealth stashed inoverseas banks. The terms of reference (ToR) of the task force also suggestthe urgency, as the PM has asked it to give recommendations within twoweeks “for steps to be taken by the task force for expedient return ofunlawfully acquired assets from abroad”.