Pakistan limits public disclosure of bureaucrats' assets
The government will publish only selected asset information of BS-17 and above civil servants by end of December 2026 to meet an IMF structural benchmark, citing security concerns over full disclosure.
The government will not fully disclose the assets of civil servants and will instead publish only selected information by the end of December 2026 to meet a structural benchmark set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Finance Secretary Imdadullah Bosal told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue on Thursday.
The committee, chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar, heard that full asset declarations are being withheld citing security concerns. Members objected, questioning why bureaucrats should be treated differently when politicians, including the president and the prime minister, must disclose their assets in full. Bosal did not directly respond to the objection.
Under the mechanism, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will assess the data and report its findings to the Establishment Division, which can initiate disciplinary action in case of any discrepancy. Assets will be declared under prescribed guidelines but will not be published in full.
The government has already digitised declarations of income and assets for all federal civil servants in BS-17 and above, replacing manual submission with a dedicated FBR online portal. Declarations will undergo risk-based verification, while selected non-sensitive information will be made public.
The Ministry of Finance has published an Establishment Division office memorandum on the digitisation under Section 15-A of the Civil Servants Act, 1973.
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