Five key finance bills, including the one that was aimed to fulfil the requirements of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have been facing blockade, as Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Hafeez Sheikh has not attended even a single meeting of both the standing committees of National Assembly (NA) and Senate, since he has taken charge in April 2019.
According to a report, NA Standing Committee on Finance unanimously decided that all government bills would be considered in the meeting, when finance adviser would attend the meeting and brief the members about all the under-consideration bills.
The report further revealed that Hafeez Sheikh has never attended any meeting of the standing committees of both the national assembly and the senate since taking over the portfolio in April 2019.
A total of six bills moved by the government were on the agenda of the meeting, including a couple of crucial laws for fulfilling the requirements of FATF and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The panel rejected one bill and deferred five others due to continuous absence of Shaikh.
The five others that were deferred by the committee included the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019, the SBP Banking Services Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2019, the Government Savings Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Post Office Cash Certificate (Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Post Office National Savings Certificates (Amendment) Bill 2020.