ISLAMABAD - Finance Minister Asad Umar on Thursday resolved the government’s commitment to implement the international AML/CFT standards.
He reaffirmed Pakistan’s strong and unequivocal commitment to work with APG/FATF in the fight against money laundering, terrorism financing and other financial crimes.
The APG Mutual Evaluation Assessment Team headed by Gordon Hook, Executive Secretary of APG, had a courtesy meeting with the Finance Minister on Thursday.
The APG assessment team briefed the Finance Minister about the purpose of their visit to Pakistan and informed that the APG team held several meetings with Pakistan’s AML/CFT stakeholders.
Gordon Hook thanked the finance minister for hosting APG’s onsite visit and acknowledged Pakistan’s progress in AML/CFT areas.
In particular, the finance minister emphasised that Pakistan will continue to take all actions required to further strengthen our AML/CFT regime.
The APG delegation had reached Islamabad at the start of October and will be in the country till October 19. A high-level delegation from Pakistan comprising officials from the Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Interior, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and Federal Investigation Agency, State Bank of Pakistan and National Accountability Bureau held talks with the visiting AGP team.
In June 2018, Pakistan had made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime. Pakistan had also committed to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies by implementing 10-point action plan to accomplish these objectives.
The successful implementation of the 10-point action and its physical verification by APG would lead the FATF to remove Pakistan from its grey list of countries by September 2019. Otherwise, Pakistan will be further downgraded into the black list.
NAB BRIEFS FATF DELEGATION
NNI adds: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday briefed a delegation of Financial Action Task Forces (FATF) Asia Pacific Group (APG) on measures and cases related to money laundering.
Sources said that the FATF team was told that corrupt elements involved in money laundering were being convicted by the courts and they would not be spared.
The delegation was also briefed about the anti-graft watchdog’s overall performance.
On the other hand, the sources privy to the Finance Ministry said that the dialogues with the delegation of Financial Action Task Forces (FATF) Asia Pacific Group (APG) completed on Thursday.
Work on implementation and steps on the FATF terms have begun, the sources said and added Pakistan has assured the FATF of further tightening the anti-money laundering laws.
The decision to amend FIA Act 1974 and State Bank Act 1947 has also been taken and the Anti-Money Laundering Act would also be amended.
The properties of those involved in money laundering would be seized for six months instead of three months. The government also decided to form a task force to oversee implementation laws.
The task force would be constituted under the Chairmanship of Interior Secretary and its offices would be made at all airports of the country.
Steps would also be taken to make the anti-money laundering task force functional at provincial and Federal level.