Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A broadening of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requirements seemed when the National Assembly passed a key bill on Monday which will permit the exchange of information and criminals with other countries.

The main concern of the FATF is to ensure compliance by Pakistan related to the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws — but through the new regulation, the government would be able to exchange all kinds of records along with the individual(s) who is an offender.  What’s more, this will be done with the permission of Interior ministry only.

“This Act shall regulate the procedure for rendering and soliciting mutual legal assistance in criminal matters by Islamic Republic of Pakistan subject to the provisions of this Act, the mutual legal assistance may be provided by Islamic Republic of Pakistan to a country on the basis of an agreement or reciprocal arrangement,” The draft of the bill says.

The bill was presented by the minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, although the opposition parties initially asked to defer the bill by saying it as illegal.

Following a yes/no vote being taken in the house which resulted in 87/83, that was enough to rebuke the opposition’s mandate, meanwhile, the opposition asked four minor changes, however, two of their proposed changes merged into the bill.

In the first phase, the Parliamentary leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Syed Naveed Qamar quoted that such bill will compel any countries to extradite its citizens with no appropriate understanding of such with other countries—  in the past after a legitimate concurrence with nations you were then having the option to share any data.

While PML-N parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif claimed that all such move is against Pakistan’s sovereignty. Meanwhile, later the federal minister Fawad Chaudhry lashed over such comments of oppositions by saying that it’s never wrong to share information amongst countries, although it the opposition — which trapped Pakistan in the FATF list.

At that point, PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel claimed that there was a condition in the bill, which enabled the administration to hand over people to nations even without request.

In response, the government serves Asad Umar said that the title of the charge itself recommended that exchange would occur under shared comprehension.

“What fear do you have?” he lauded.

He included that even the UK and the UAE had changed their laws and they were going towards transparency.

In conclusion, the federal minister Ali Muhammad Khan said no Pakistani would like to see the country being blacklisted by the FATF.

Nevertheless, the bill after passing in the Senate will become intact.