NA adopts motion to table FATF bills at joint session

The lower house of parliament on Monday adopted motions to refer two Financial Action Task Force (FATF) related bills to a joint sitting of parliament for consideration and passage. The opposition parties opposed the move.             

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan moved both the motions separately under sub-rule (7) of rule 154 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007.          

The National Assembly had passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill, 2020 and the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill 2020. However, the Senate, where the opposition enjoys majority, rejected the bills a day later, on August 25.

After rejection of the bills, which the government claimed are necessary to come out of the FATF grey list, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs had decided to suggest summoning a joint session.

The FATF – a global body that develops policies to curb money laundering and terror financing – put Pakistan on its grey list in June last year. Pakistan has to meet its 27-point action plan to escape getting blacklisted as a non-compliant nation.

The lower house on Monday also adopted a resolution, moved by Parliamentary Secretary Law and Justice Maleeka Bokhari to extend the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020 (VI of 2020) for another 120 days.

“That the National Assembly resolves to extend the [ordinance] for a further period of one hundred and twenty days w-e-f 17-09-2020 under proviso to sub-paragraph (ii0 of paragraph (a) of clause (2) of Article 89 of the Constitution," it said.              

The President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi promulgated the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance 2020 on May 20 with the aim to gives foreign citizens convicted in Pakistan the chance to file a review appeal in the country’s courts. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its verdict last year, had ruled that Pakistan must grant consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav, a convicted Indian spy who was sentenced to death by a military court in Pakistan, and allow him to file a review appeal in a local court.