Islamabad (Web Desk): The Senate on Friday passed the National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Authority Bill, 2023.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar tabled the bill in the upper house of the Parliament.
As per the draft of the bill, it aims to deal with offences pertaining to money-laundering and to further strengthen existing laws to effectively check illegal/corrupt practices which have a negative impact on the economy.
Speaking on the floor of the House, Hina Rabbani Khar said it is an effort by the government for the continuation of the work the state has done to get Pakistan out of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey-list.
She said that we are ensuring that the continuation of that work happens in an institutionalize manner
Khar said that the bill envisages the establishment of a National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Authority, headed by a chairman appointed by the prime minister.
The minister said that the establishment of the authority will streamline the work happening within the government and different provinces.
The state minister said that this will allow us to monitor our progress and if there are any loopholes, we can connect them before we run into any serious problem.
According to the minister, the proposed authority will be headed by a chairman and will consist of the federal secretaries for finance, foreign affairs and interior, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor; chairpersons of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) , directors general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) and Financial Monitoring Unit, (FMU) national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), and chief secretaries of all four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.