ISLMABAD: The National Assembly Monday passed four bills to fulfill the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to get the country out of the grey list amid dissent from opposition political parties. The Lower House of the Parliament passed four bills - The Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020, The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and The Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill, 2020, - with majority votes.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan tabled the bills in the house. The opposition moved the amendments in the house to be incorporated in Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, and The Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill, 2020, but the government rejected all the amendments with majority votes.
About the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, former prime minister and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Raja Pervez Ashraf expressed concerns, and said there was a clause in the bill, which was a serious violation of fundamental rights of citizens.
He said that according to the bill any person could be arrested without any warrant by the law enforcement agencies, which would have serious repercussions, and such "black laws" in violation of basic human rights must not be made.
"We should not give power to any state agency to arrest any person without a warrant as it's a violation of basic human rights," he lamented. Ashraf said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should not be given prosecution powers as there were other investigating agencies such as the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), etc, adding unless the amendments put forth by the opposition were not included in the bill, it would be called a black law.
Responding to Ashraf's reservations, Awan said that no hindrance in the national security was acceptable. Referring to the visit of Indian national security adviser to the country during former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's government, he said why nobody talked of national security when he came to Pakistan without any visa.
The parliamentary leader of the PML-N in the National Assembly, Khawaja Asif, seconded Ashraf, saying there should be a balanced law and there should be no such legislation, which could be misused in the future. The Adviser to the Prime Minister, Shahzad Akbar, said that amendments were being made to the bill in order to get the country out of the FATF grey list.
He accused Shahbaz Sharif, who claims to have not even committed corruption of even a penny, had also inducted his cash boys in a fake company Good Nature Trading Company that had laundered billions of rupees through fake telegraphic transfers (TTs).
This angered, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who said that inviting an "unelected and a rented minister" to the parliament was an insult to the house, adding the words he uttered against the opposition leader should be expunged. "NAB law is a black law and the anti-graft body [NAB] should be made an investigating agency," he added.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly was informed that the government was planning to reopen educational institutes from the 15th of the next month. Responding to a calling attention notice, Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said that a consultative meeting to take final decision regarding reopening of the school would be held on 7th of the next month.
According to objects and reasons of The Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, these amendments are aimed at streamlining the existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law in line with international standards prescribed by the Financial Action Task Force (FAT'F), and will reflect government's firm resolve to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering regime. These amendments would identify the AML/CFT regulatory authorities for designated non financial businesses and professions (DNFBP). Customer due diligence process has been explained in detail in the proposed amendments.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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