Senators have expressed apprehensions on the likely misuse of proposed amendments to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law and stated that it could be used against politicians. Kalsoom Perveen requested the committee chairperson not to show haste in a clause-wise reading of the bill and let the senators raise questions for their satisfaction as the proposed changes in law may create problems for politicians.
Senator Talha Mehmood said that a sitting minister, according to him, was forced to sign money laundering affidavit in the past. Another senator suggested that the committee should invite senators Aitzaz Ahsan and Raza Rabbani and solicit legal opinion from them on the proposed amendments. The committee meeting presided over by Senator Nasreen Jalil would meet today (Thursday) to take up the remaining clauses. The committee members also expressed dismay over the absence of Finance Minister from the meeting. The meeting was informed that National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) and Custom as well as Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) would be conducting investigation into money-laundering cases. The cases would be referred to investigating agencies by Financial Management Unit (FMU) of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Senator Sughra Iman and other senators stated that bureaucracy has no right to dictate the parliamentarians, as Governor SBP to their question on terrorist financing stated that "you are entering into domain which is confidential".
Responding to this, Senator Sughra Iman said that if senators are here to make some amendments they must know the reasons and what progress has been made with respect to suspicious transaction repots (STRs) since 2010 when the law was approved by the Parliament.
She further stated that committee's approach regarding a legislation has been very flawed. Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ashraf Wathra stated that politicians would have no problem in account opening if they give answers to the normal due diligence questions when former Finance Minister Saleem Mandviwalla stated that a SBP circular issued during his government about politically exposed persons have created account opening problem for politicians. He said that everyone has to follow the due diligence process for account opening. He further added that SBP has issued inspection guidelines to the banks under the existing money laundering law regarding reporting of suspicious transactions. In reply to a question about PTI chief's statement, saying that overseas Pakistanis should not send remittances through normal banking channel, he said that the SBP had immediately issued a press release that this act on part of the PTI was illegal.
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