Civil servants’ asset declarations to be made public in redacted form, says govt

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday said that IMF-mandated asset declarations of civil servants would be made publicly accessible in a redacted form to ensure both transparency and personal privacy. The declaration of government officials’ assets is required under IMF governance and corruption-related benchmarks. Establishment Division Secretary Nabeel Awan testified before the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, which ordered full investigations into two major scams involving the disappearance of over 400 kilogrammes of silver and a major portion of 2,000 bags of skimmed milk from the custody of Pakistan Customs. The meeting of the senate panel, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, took up the status of asset declarations by government servants, and Awan reported that the government had revised the Civil Servants Conduct Rules and was in the process of digitising the asset declaration system through the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) platform. He said, “Declarations would be publicly accessible in a redacted form to ensure transparency while safeguarding personal privacy,” adding that the objectives of asset declarations and income tax returns were distinct in nature and governed under separate legal frameworks. Mandviwalla appreciated the initiative and directed that the revised conduct rules be shared with the committee for detailed review and possible refinement. He also suggested exploring amendments to the Election Act for parliamentarians regarding the submission of asset declarations to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The committee also deliberated on the case of missing silver during transportation after its confiscation by Customs authorities. It was reported that approximately 698kg of silver had been confiscated in various cases in Balochistan. However, during transport, it was found that the consignment allegedly contained only 298kg of silver, while the remaining 400kg consisted of lead. Customs officials informed the commi