Pakistan in FATF: Pakistan has been in the gray list of FATF since the year 2018 and has failed to get out despite a lot of beatings. Now the Parliament here has passed a bill related to it.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan
Pakistan Passes FATF Related Bill: Pakistan’s Parliament has passed a bill to provide legal aid in cases of international crime as part of efforts to meet the conditions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Amendment Bill has been passed in the Upper House Senate amid opposition protests in the country. In June 2018, the FATF had put Pakistan on the gray list for terror funding.
Pakistan was also asked to complete an action plan by October 2019. But it still remains in the gray list (Pakistan in FATF Gray List). Pakistan has repeatedly failed to fulfill this action plan. “The rise in international organized crime has made it necessary for the international community and Pakistan to improve the effectiveness of legal instruments because of the lack of uniformity in law and the weakening between countries,” a statement issued on the objectives and reasons for the bill said. The coordination mechanism makes it difficult to combat cross-border crime.
Opposition party protesting heavily
The law has been said to be necessary to deal with such challenges. However, the opposition parties are strongly opposing the government. They say that this will give the government the power to hand over Pakistani citizens to other countries on the basis of allegations. According to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-e-Islami party said that the bill is against fundamental rights, constitution, principles of natural justice and national interest. But still the bill was passed with a majority.
Government will take action without notice
Senator Ahmed called it a dark day in parliamentary history and said that the government can take action against any person by confiscation of property acquired through money laundering without issuing any notice. This is against the principles of law. He said that the government will hand over Pakistani citizens to other countries without any netis. Ahmed alleged that through this bill the government was paving the way for the release of Shakeel Afridi, who helped the CIA trace Osama bin Laden, and Indian prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death. However, the government rejected these allegations.
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