NA panel green-lights FATF related bill

Opposition members express concerns over urgency for enacting such important legislation

ISLAMABAD:

A parliamentary panel has approved with majority vote the Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2020, sponsored by the federal government to fulfill some of the requirements of the 27-point action plan of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on Friday deliberated on the bill as well as two other proposed legislations - the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020.

The meeting chaired by MNA Jamil Ahmed Khan was also attended by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. Addressing the participants, Dr Shaikh said fulfilling the FATF's demands is a national issue.

The FATF, an inter-governmental organization that sets global policy against money laundering and terror financing, put Pakistan on its grey list in June 2019.

Pakistan has now to implement the FATF's 27-point action plan in order to avoid its blacklist of non-compliant countries. Dr Shaikh said Pakistan has already implemented 14 of the measures proposed in the action plan and now needs to legislate to implement it completely.

PPP lawmaker Syed Naveed Qamar said the government is bulldozing the FATF related legislations through the parliament, adding that the proposed legislations might make it difficult for people to do business.

Some other members of the committee also expressed their concerns about the urgency shown by the PTI led federal government for enacting FATF related legislation. The committee also discussed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 clause by clause and made minor amendments in the bill.

The Financial Management Unit (FMU) director general apprised the committee about the salient features of the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 that also aims at fulfilling the recommendations made by the FATF.

The committee discussed the bill clause by clause and made several amendments. However, it was decided that the bill will be further discussed on August 10.

The meeting was attended by Aamir Mehmood Kiani, Makhdoom Syed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Faheem Khan, Aftab Hussain Siddique, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani,  Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Chaudhary Khalid Javed, Ali Perviz, Dr Aisha Ghaus-Pasha, Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar and Abdul Wasay.

Senior officers from ministries of finance and revenue and law and justice as well as the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the FMU attended the meeting.