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 committee that the matter appeared prima facie to be an insider job and that an inquiry had already been initiated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Mandviwalla directed the FBR to ensure recovery of the missing silver, identify those involved and submit a comprehensive report. The matter was also referred to the interior sub-committee for further investigation.

‎The committee also considered the ‘Pakistan Sovereign Wealth Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2026’. Mandviwalla questioned the timing and broader implications of the proposed amendments amid the ongoing budget exercise for the upcoming financial year.

Officials said the amendments were intended to improve governance, operational efficiency and the management of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and were not directly linked to the federal budget process.

Committee members, however, expressed concerns over delays in development funding and cautioned that the proposed amendments should not adversely impact SOEs.

The amendments also proposed mandatory briefings to parliamentary standing committees on SOE performance.

The matter was deferred for further debate, and the ministry was asked to submit a clause-by-clause rationale for each proposed amendment before the next meeting.

In November 2025, the government agreed to the publication of asset declarations of high-level public officials in 2026 and their risk-based verification to improve the country’s accountability and integrity standards against widespread corruption..

According to IMF’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA), released by the Ministry of Finance as a structural benchmark of the ongoing $7 billion loan programme, the two sides agreed under a short-term action plan to “strengthen accountability and integrity among high-level federal civil servants by initiating the publication of asset declarations in 2026, and introduce risk-based verification of asset declarations”.