In a major development, Switzerland will now share financial information with Pakistan which will help unearth the corrupt politicians’ foreign accounts.

The development took place earlier this week when the Swiss parliament – both Upper and Lower Houses – approved 18 more countries, including Pakistan, for automatic exchange of financial information (AEOI).

Under this treaty, Switzerland will share the details of bank accounts held by their citizens in the country, as well as foreign citizens that have Swiss bank accounts.

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Turkey, however, after an early consideration, failed to make the cut due to data protection concerns.

The newly-approved batch includes 18 countries, taking the total tally to 68. The 18 countries are:

Albania Azerbaijan Brunei Dominica Ghana Kazakhstan Lebanon Macau Maldives Nigeria Niue Oman Pakistan Peru Samoa Saint Martin Trinidad and Tobago Vanuatu

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The Swiss government, under the same treaty, currently shares financial data with 63 countries and receives data from 75 countries.

The move will not only help Pakistan trace the ill-gotten money worth billions of dollars stashed in Swiss banks, it will also provide a massive boost to the PTI government’s anti-corruption drive.

The government has been tracing the corruption money stashed abroad and had officially sought help from the Swiss government in this regard.

Law Minister Farogh Naseem had held a series of meetings with Swiss Ambassador Thomas Kollay in November last year, seeking Switzerland’s help in tracing and bringing the illegally parked money back to Pakistan.