President Alvi promulgates Anti-Money Laundering Amendment Act 2020

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has promulgated the Anti-Money Laundering Amendment Act, 2020 and the new law has been implemented with immediate effect in Pakistan, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The National Assembly (NA) Secretariat confirmed the development that the president signed the Anti-Money Laundering Amendment Act, 2020.

The law will come into force with immediate effect after being promulgated by the president.

Pakistan has now fulfilled a major requirement of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for special measures to curb terror financing. Under the new law, those persons and institutions will be pronounced strict punishments over their involvement in money laundering.

Sources closer to the federal government told ARY News that the implementation of the new Act has increased expectations for Pakistan to be excluded from the FATF’s grey list.

Read: Pakistan to get out of FATF grey list like it overcame coronavirus: PM Imran

It is pertinent to mention here that President Dr Arif Alvi had already signed seven other bills related to the FATF-related laws passed during the joint parliament session.

The National Assembly (NA) had approved Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 amid dissent from opposition parties on August 24.

Later on September 16, the joint sitting of the Parliament had passed three bills to meet the requirements of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) with the majority votes.

The FATF-related bills had been moved by Advisor to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan and Faheem Khan in the house.

According to the statement of subjects and reasons, ‘The Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020’ was aimed at streamlining the existing anti money laundering law in line with international standards prescribed by FATF while the ‘The Anti-Terrorism (Third Amendment) Bill, 2020’ was aimed at controlling the issue of terror financing.