ISLAMABAD: In a bid to get the country out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s grey list, the Senate on Wednesday passed another two government bills - The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020, with amendments.
The bills moved by State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, incorporate various amendments to the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2017 and Companies Act 2017 to ensure compliance with the recommendations on anti-money laundering, and countering the financing of terrorism issued by the FATF.
The bills were passed after presentation of reports by the relevant standing committee on finance, revenue and economic affairs.
The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2020, suggests various amendments to the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2017, to ensure compliance with the recommendations on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism issued by the FATF.
Pakistan's 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) on the FATF recommendations issued by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), highlighted lack of obligations for limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to hold ultimate beneficial ownership information. The report also highlighted lack of penalties for breach of the AML/CFT requirements by the LLFs.
Accordingly, the proposed amendments, aimed at enhancing the transparency of legal persons, to fulfill the recommended actions in the MER, and to enhance the country's ranking against the aforesaid standards, were adopted.
These are also aimed to conform to the action plan, approved by the National Executive Committee on the AML/CFT for compliance with the FATF recommendations.
The Companies (Amendment) Bill 2020 has suggested various amendments to Companies Act 2017 to ensure compliance with the recommendations on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism issued by the FATF.
Speaking on the occasion, Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem said under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the country is fast moving on a path to development and prosperity.
He said that Pakistan was already on grey list of the FATF due to money laundering and terrorism, adding the people who are making hue and cry now, should know who is responsible for all this.
He said that which party is facing cases in the court for their alleged involvement in money laundering.
This infuriated the opposition MPs especially those belonging to Pakistan People's Party (PPP), whose leadership is facing money laundering cases in different courts, but the leader of the house stood his ground, saying he would talk about those involved in alleged money laundering.
"When you were in power, the country was known all over the globe due to terrorism and when we came into power, we introduced the country as a tourist destiny," he added.
He said that India has virtually been isolated before the world due to efforts of the PTI government compared to previous governments, which had isolated the country due to their flawed policies.
He said that the government presented the country as a peace loving and responsible country among the comity of the nations.
"This is the first inning and we'll play the second inning again after three years as the nation has voted us into power to get rid of the dynastic politics," he added.
In an obvious reference to the speech of the leader of house in Senate, Senator Quratul Ain Marri of the PPP said that "it would be really difficult to follow up such a major comedy act".
She continued that it is Imran Khan who declared Osama bin Laden a "martyr", but his leader of the house blames us for extremism and terrorism in the country, adding the PTI has been getting stay orders for the last seven years in PTI foreign funding case.
"I don't know where his [Shahzad Wasim] speech came from, but it's okay he was talking like prime minister's [Imran Khan] philosophy of 'not to panic', as we're now used to it", she added.
This scathing criticism from Senator Marri left Senator Wasim red-faced who stood up from his seat in a bid to calm her down; saying the chair of the leader of the house should be respected.
But Marri, an articulate senator from Sindh laughed it off, saying: "have a heart Mr leader of house and listen to us as your role here is like that of a host in this house".
Chairman of Functional Committee on Human Rights Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar presented report of the Committee on a Point of Public Importance regarding the incident of brutal killing of an eight years old girl Zehra Shah in Rawalpindi.
Chairman of the Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Faisal Javed presented report of the Committee on a Point of Public Importance regarding removal of 38 employees from the Press Council of Pakistan.
Earlier, Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseen moved a motion under Rule 263 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of business in the Senate, 2012 that the requirement of Rule 41 of the said rules regarding question hour be dispensed with for August 19, 2020. The motion was passed by the House and the question hour was not observed.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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