Pakistan govt approves amnesty scheme to regularise black money

Decision marks turnaround for Prime Minister Imran Khan who accused previous govts of using amnesties to clean up illegally acquired wealth hidden outside Pakistan.

Pakistan's cabinet on Tuesday approved an amnesty that will allow tax payers to regularise undeclared assets, as part of plans to raise revenue and stimulate the slowing economy, following agreement on a new bailout from the IMF.

Finance advisor Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Pakistan's de facto finance minister, said the move was intended to bring undeclared assets held either at home or abroad into the regular economy, which has long suffered from rising deficits and chronic underinvestment.

"The purpose of this scheme is for assets, which are kind of dead assets, to be part of the economy, to make them operational," he told