FIA seeks NAB-like powers

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has informed the National Assembly Standing Comm-ittee on Interior that it failed to achieve desired results against money-laundering due to multiple flaws in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act, 2010. The meeting of the committee was held with MNA Khurram Shahzad Nawaz in the chair here at the Parliament House on Tuesday.
Briefing the committee members, Additional Director General FIA Basharat Mehmood Shehzad said the agency should have the same access to public record as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce the desired results against the crime.
The NAB under its law has the authority to take record from any institution for investigation into a case but the FIA cannot obtain public record directly from any department. He informed the committee members that the FIA first has to seek permission from a court to obtain public record in a case, and then if allowed, it can get the record for investigation.
"The process takes a lot of time and investigation is delayed in many cases," he said, adding that the anti-money laundering law requires amendments as currently the agency has to obtain permission from a sessions judge if it requires banking record. The committee members were also briefed about benami and fake bank accounts. The FIA official informed the committee members that no bank account is benami as it was under someone's name.
A fake bank account is sometimes registered to a person who has died while his account is still active, he said, adding that a benami account is one where the account holders' transactions do not match their income. He said that the bank officials have been found involved in operations and opening of the fake and benami accounts.
The committee members were informed that around 500 cases pertaining to fake and benami accounts have been reported to the relevant government departments. About cyber crime, the committee was informed that ratio of the social media-related crime has increased manifold in recent years and the FIA is getting increasing number of complaints.
The committee members were informed that workload of the FIA's Cyber Crime Wing has increased manifold due to rising number of complaints of fraud and immoral activities on social media. The committee directed the FIA to submit a detailed report on illegal housing societies, number of investigations open against the housing societies as well as the number of people who had been arrested for fraudulent dealings.
During the committee meeting, PML-N MNA Marriyum Aurangzeb expressed dissatisfaction over the FIA briefing. She said that the briefing was not something on the basis of which they could examine the performance of the FIA over the past five years, and added that instead a list of all those who are being investigated since the time the FIA was created should be presented.