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| Pakistan may face penalties if laws on money laundering not amended |
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: Secretary Finance Salman Siddique has warned that Pakistan might face financial penalties from international organisations if the country failed to improve its existing anti-money laundering laws before February 2010.
The warning came during the meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Finance presided over by Fauzia Wahab. He said that despite warnings from the Asia-Pacific Group on money laundering, an associate member of Financial Action Task Force, Pakistan had so far failed to upgrade the existing money laundering laws.
The concerned officials from the Ministries of Finance and the Law Ministry as well as the State Bank informed the committee members that being a signatory to various UN conventions, Pakistan needed laws in line with international standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
The committee was informed that the existing Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance 2007 would expire on November 28. “If the required changes were not made by that time, then the anti-money laundry regulations would become non-existent in the country,” said Salman Siddique.
The committee, however, could not decide on the changes in the Anti-Money Laundering Bill and decided to postpone the matter till the next meeting of the committee scheduled for October 27.
“We need a new anti-money laundering law in the country,” said Khawaja Asif adding that amending the existing law would actually amount to extending support to the law given by a dictator. Even PML-Q member Kashmala Tariq opposed the amendments and said that the anti-money laundering ordinance was a controversial document.
“It was a game plan of Shaukat Aziz to give boost and leverage to the banking sector in the country,” Kashmala Tariq said and added that it was the obligation of the democratic forces to get rid of such regulations.
The opposition members demanded that a new anti-money laundering bill be formulated. Nafisa Shah wanted to know whether approving a new bill after the November 28 deadline would create any legal void. The State Bank officials present in the meeting said that the government had to take the matter seriously as failing to meet the anti-money laundering requirement would invite penalties and some of the transactions to and from the country might face delays.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
