ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that talks would be held with the Swiss authorities in August for bringing back about $200 billion stashed in banks of Switzerland by Pakistanis.

According to Dawn.com, he said talks would be held in several phases and it could take three to four years to bring the money back to Pakistan.

Mr Dar said that the economic situation was fragile when his party, the PML-N, took charge of the country’s affairs. International monetary institutions had predicted that Pakistan would be bankrupt in 2014 but the PML-N government with its good performance had proved that the country had a strong economy, he said.

Switzerland enacted a law in 2011 to make it easier for countries to recover assets stolen by politicians and hidden in its banks.

In 2012, Switzerland said it had returned $1.83bn in illicitly-placed assets to countries involved in the Arab Spring regime changes, but Pakistan’s tax agreement did not allow it to take advantage of the law.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014