ISLAMABAD: The government will have to get the proposed amendments in the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 passed by the parliament through a method of lobbying in both the Lower and Upper House of the Parliament as majority of members of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, here the other day were opposed to the proposed amendments in the Anti Money Laundering Act 2010.
Chairperson Committee Senator Nasreen Jalil told this scribe here exclusively that majority of members were not willing to include tax evasion in financial crime and if the committee would not come to any conclusion, either approving and rejecting or forwarding the proposed amendments back to the House with note of dissent, then the government would have to launch a comprehensive process of lobbying.
“Such process is a customary and in this process governments often hold All Parties Conferences (APCs) to evolve a consensus on issues and matters of national importance,” she said, adding that another way to get these amendments passed by the parliament was to summon the joint sitting of the parliament and then present the proposed amendments before the House for approval, however, it would be the last resort for government on this issue.
Earlier, in the meeting, Senators hailing from two major former ruling coalition parties, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-Awami) raised numerous questions, majority had little bit significance and relevance, but they consumed most of the time of the proceedings of the committee.
PPP Senators Islamuddin Shaikh, Sughra Imam, Fateh Muhammad Muhamamd Hassni, Salim H Manviwala, ANP Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel and BNP-Awami Senator Kalsoom Parveen were main critics of the proposed amendments in the AML Act 2010, however, they seemed less prepared about the subject. At one stage, members also raised the petty issue of absence of Finance Minister, Minister of State for Finance and even Parliamentary Secretary from the meeting and moved a resolution that committee should not hold meeting in the absence of concerned ministers.
Moreover, they further criticised all ministers including Finance Minister, Interior, Law and Foreign Ministers for their over burdened busy schedules and not paying heed towards the proceedings of the parliament. They also proposed the chairperson to pass a resolution to charge the expenditures of committee meetings from the pocket of the minister who would remain absent from committee meetings in future to make the ministers punctual to attend the meetings.
While going brief clause by clause discussion on the proposed amendments in the AML Act 2010, these senators also proposed to exclude both the Finance and Interior Ministers from the National Executive Committee (NEC) because these ministers remained neck bound busy and it was not possible for them to gather for meeting.
In short, committee members discussed every other aspect, issue and matter instead of the proposed amendments which were before the committee for deliberations. Even ANP Senator Haji Adeel inquired from the Secretary Finance Dr. Waqar Masood number of committees headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. PPP Senator Salim Mandiwala raised the issue of no provision of loans facility to politicians by banks as well as strict criteria for opening bank accounts of political figures.
PPP Senator Sughra Imam came hard of Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) asking for total number of cases of suspicious transactions reports (STRs) and cash transaction reports (CTRs) since the inception of Anti Money Laundering Law in the country to get a know how about the effectiveness of the said law.
PPP Senator Fateh Muhammad Muhammad Hassni also questioned why financial institutions had reduced the loan limits for the political figures. However, Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) Senator Talha Mahmood opposed the move that committee should cancel its meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday due to unavailability of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Dar is currently on three day official visit to Japan.
