Loopholes must be plugged in upcoming Benami law

Media and political corps should be vigilant to prevent breach of law

ISLAMABAD: The Senate is reviewing the draft of a Benami bill being introduced for the first time in Pakistan’s history. It will focus on the transactions made in money, transfer of money, transfer of assets, etc.

Will the bill help achieve its purpose? It is a major question given the poor history of lawmaking and implementation in Pakistan.

A common citizen will believe that after enactment of this law every person within boundaries of the country will be punished if he is found involved in Benami transactions. The same government agencies will be responsible for tracing the Benami transactions that help NAB and other investigating and prosecuting institutions in curbing the breach of law to prevent and punish for financial crimes.

Of course, people will not greet this law with great enthusiasm. Apart from poor implementation of laws, Pakistan also has a history of opposition to certain laws, which target the freedom and rights of citizens. Will the civil society be up in arms against the misuse and poor implementation of the proposed law?

Such questions come to the mind whenever an important piece of legislation is considered by parliament. There are no straight answers. However, one thing is clear that the law will be a deterrent to the widespread Benami culture in Pakistan, like India and other countries with weak and biased implementation of the law.

The Hawala and Patwari systems discourage the enthusiasm for curbing financial crimes in Pakistan. Lately, there has been increased sale and purchase of land in non-urban areas, especially those where road networks are extended for motorways and highways.

The Patwari system is involved in transactions of these huge tracts of land and as a result certain influential people are facing scrutiny in this regard.

It is a common knowledge that the transfer of ill-gotten money through Hawala – an illegal money transfer system outside of banking channels – is a crime. However, the trail of money into and out of Pakistan, particularly involving the influential people, has never been traced to prove the Benami transactions.

A step in the right direction

Still, the introduction of a new law to curb Benami deals is a step in the right direction. No law has ever had a smooth implementation but each new law eventually finds a course to come into effect.

Can the influential people defy the Benami law? It depends on how the media and political corps stay vigilant. The civil society has a role to play as it can now have an instrument with which it can target the criminals that break the common law and even the constitution of Pakistan.

The Benami law will help the activists who advocate fair play and freedom of speech and political activity. They will be able to act more effectively, but not without homework and proper understanding of the techniques of investigation.

It is not just the understanding of rights, rules and loopholes in the law. A better implementation of the law requires understanding of the effective techniques of investigation.

If law practitioners, investigators and civil society activists do not know the techniques, their efforts might backfire in cases where the law has been dodged skillfully by an influential in a Benami land transaction.

There is a responsibility on members of the bar associations to propose techniques of better investigation in order to make it part of the law.

On the other hand, media houses should improve the techniques of reporting in such cases and target the poor performance of investigating agencies.

Members of parliament and the judiciary should develop a better understanding of the investigating techniques applied in democracies, where the probe in such cases is effective and quick.

The new law, if approved, might be a source of hope if studies are conducted to find out whether it has loopholes that could be manipulated.

The writer has worked with major newspapers and specialises in the analysis of public finance and geo-economics of terrorism

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2016.

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