Daily Times

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said Pakistan as a responsible member and was ensuring the earliest completion of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan.

The adviser was delivering a keynote statement online to a high-level panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The panel discussed among others the overall efforts undertaken by member states to implement comprehensive international frameworks related to financial accountability, transparency and integrity critical to financing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told the panel that Pakistan had made considerable progress in addressing the recommended actions of Mutual Evaluation Report which includes 15 Legal Amendments to meet technical compliance, updation of National Risk Assessment on ML/CT, implementation of AML/CFT measures on DNFBPs, CDNS and Pakistan Post, broadening the sanction regime etc.

He elaborated on the measures Pakistan has taken to strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Finance of Terrorism to bring financial institutions in line with FATF standards.

He said amendments to Protection of Economic Reforms Act (PERA) 1992 had been incorporated to restrict feeding of foreign currency accounts by non-tax filers. The Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) has been launched to facilitate inflow of home remittance through formal channels.