PM Imran Khan to meet Senators over FATF-related bills tomorrow: sources

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has summoned a meeting of the Senators hailing from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and other coalition parties to discuss legislation on Financial Action Task Force (FATF), ARY NEWS reported.

Sources privy to the matter said that the senators will meet the prime minister at 4:30 pm tomorrow and the premier would listen to the issues faced by them.

The prime minister would also issue directives to the Senators on legislation pertaining to FATF and other matters.

It is pertinent to mention here that the opposition parties in Senate foiled a bid from the government to pass a bill relating to FATF, anti-money laundering (second amendment) bill 2020, from the Senate.

Prime Minister Imran Khan while responding to it said that opposition parties are “blackmailing” his government over FATF bills despite being aware of the importance of the desired legislation and repeated his resolve not to give the opposition leaders any sort of “relief” in corruption cases.

In an exclusive interview with ARY News’ anchor Arshad Sharif, the PM said that his government had inherited the FATF grey-list status and is trying hard to comply with the international body’s guidelines to bring Pakistan out of the list but “self-serving” opposition party leaders are trying to blackmail his government against supporting the bills “just to save their ill-gotten wealth”.

“They have this one-point agenda, if I grant them an NRO (a euphemism for relief in corruption cases), all will be well,” said the PM.