NA approves anti-money laundering amendment bill amid opposition's protest

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly on Monday approved Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 amid dissent from opposition parties, ARY NEWS reported.

The bill was tabled in the Lower House of the Parliament by Adviser to PM on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan and was opposed by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Speaking on the occasion, Babar Awan said that they would not tolerate any hindrance over legislation on matters pertaining to the national interest. He further offered the opposition to sit together to bring more transparency on the role of authority tasked to make arrests under the law.

Special Assistant to PM on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said that they have made an amendment in the anti-money laundering bill, passed in 2007, in order to get Pakistan out from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“We took opposition parties into confidence over every amendment and accepted their proposals for bringing improvement in the bill,” he said.

Read More: NAB establishes anti-money laundering cell

Speaking on behalf of the opposition parties, former Prime Minister and PPP lawmaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that they had proposed certain amendments in the bill especially regarding its section 10.

“We are against the power of arrest in the bill,” he said adding that such powers could give anyone the authority to make arrests without prior approval of arrest warrants.

He said that under the law, NAB is tasked to deal with anti-money laundering cases. “Even the apex court has termed the NAB’s performance as unsatisfactory,” he said while terming it a black law and opposing its passage from the National Assembly.