So far, the government and the opposition have shown maturity on issues related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). On Monday, the tradition, however, took an ugly turn when both sides did not see eye to eye on the Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) where the treasury rushed the bill through a parliamentary panel without giving any regards to members of the opposition parties. The opposition protested the bill in the meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance & Revenue, when the committee passed the bill taking the benefit of treasury members’ majority of nine votes to six within minutes in a hurriedly called meeting. The opposition wants to get the bill moderated and makes it a bit soft because under the bill, the government and law-enforcement agencies get sweeping power to capture and punish anyone under the money laundering laws. The bill provides increasing the fine for money laundering from Rs 5 million to Rs 25 million for individuals and Rs 100 million for companies and institutions. The bill envisages the constitution of the national executive committee, consisting of administrative heads of law, interior and foreign affairs, NAB, FBR, FIA and ANF, the deputy governor of State Bank and DGs of FMU, ISI, FATF cell and military operations. The opposition wants the inclusion of chairmen and leaders of the house and opposition in the committee to pre-empt political victimisation. The demand is not outrageous; the government should accommodate opposition’s demands. Moreover, all the financial and non-banking financial institutions will be required to issue suspected transaction reports and maintain record of all transactions for five years. The law provides a separate regulatory authority to be established on money laundering and terror financing. Action will be taken against non-cooperating individuals and institutions. The prime duty to keep FATF laws politics-free is of the government and it must look into serious objections by the opposition parties over the bill. The government needs to make a presentation on five FATF-related bills in the National Assembly for a thorough discussion on them to develop a consensus on the drafts. In the earlier bills, the house showed unanimity on the FATF laws, thanks to the government ‘s flexible attitude. In recent weeks, the government has presented the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and the Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2020. These bills are of crucial importance not only to bring the country out of the FATF grey list but to counter internal mess too. Both sides should avoid politics. *