Two key bills passed by Senate

In what comes as a big relief for the federal government, the Upper House of the Parliament on Tuesday passed two key bills, the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which have already been passed by the National Assembly and would soon come into effect following the assent of President Arif Alvi.

The passage of the two bills is in line with Pakistan's commitment to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which envisages parliamentary legislation to tighten noose around terror financing and money laundering. The National Assembly had passed both the bills on September 30, 2019.

During Senate session, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar presented the two bills on behalf of Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Hafeez Sheikh. The minister informed the house that both the bills had been passed by the relevant Senate committee and that they be passed by the house, before the Senate passed the two bills through voice vote.

The Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks certain amendments in Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 "aimed at streamlining the existing AML law in line with international standards and suggest enhancing the punishment of offence of money laundering to make it more dissuasive and deterrent."

The proposed amendments suggest making the offence punishable under the AML Act, 2010 as a 'cognizable offence.' These amendments would also allow Financial Monitoring Unit to seek Egmont Group Membership (Group of Financial Intelligence Unit), which is the requirement under the FATF recommendations.

Moreover, The Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks necessary amendments in the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (FERA 1947) "in order to enable the State Bank of Pakistan to regulate the foreign exchange regime in Pakistan more comprehensively as well as to strengthen the effectiveness of the Act."

The bill proposes to enhance the punishments provided in Section 23 of FERA 1947 "to create firmer deterrence against contravention of various provision of the Act." Meanwhile, speaking at the floor of the house, Senator Faisal Javed Khan from the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) briefed the house on the issue of non-payment of salaries by certain media houses, in his capacity as chairman Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting.

"It's a matter of shame that certain big media houses have not paid salaries to the journalists for several months," he said, adding that the committee had recommended practical measures for ensuring the speedy release of the salaries of journalists and all the arrears that are pending.

The house adopted the report of the Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas, regarding visits of the committee members to Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Lodhran and Lahore.

Two reports of the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce: i) on the budgetary allocation and its utilization by the Ministry of Commerce, ii) on the bill to provide for registration and effective protection of geographical indications, The Geographical Indications (Registration and Protection) Bill, 2019, were presented in the Senate by the Committee Chairman Mirza Muhammad Afridi.

The Senate would meet again on Friday.