Mar.15, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Ordinance will lapse on March 26, 2010 as the bill was not passed by the upper house of parliament, which was prorogued recently, shattering all hopes that Islamabad would come out of the list of countries vulnerable to money laundering.

The Asia Pacific Group on Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has put Pakistan into the category of those countries, which are facing low risk in terms of money laundering as it considered that the Anti Money Laundering Ordinance was not a permanent law. So it was a requirement for coming out of the existing category to get the law passed from parliament, which seems unlikely to happen till the next meeting of the FATF.

While the Finance Division had sensitized the high-ups and members of the Senate on the immense importance of passing the Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Bill before March 26, the session of the upper house was still prorogued recently without approval of the bill.

“We are again losing an opportunity to come out of the list of countries that are vulnerable to money laundering,” said senior officials of the Ministry of Finance here on Sunday. The Ministry of Finance high-ups are now expressing fears that the government will have to re-promulgate the Anti Money Laundering (AML) Ordinance after March 26, 2010 but it would not improve the ranking in the list of countries vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing issues.

The official sources said the National Assembly had already passed the AML bill but the bill could not be passed from the Senate. Although, the Asia Pacific Group on Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which met at Abu Dhabi recently, did not blacklist Pakistan as was reported in the media, it actually upgraded Pakistan’s ranking from high risk countries to the lowest risk countries or the Category III. Pakistan, however, is still in hot waters and the chance to come out of it was lost because of the complacent attitude shown by the government.

It may be recalled that the FATF had given Pakistan February 2010 as deadline for formal conversion of the ordinance into the Act of Parliament. Now, the FATF is scheduled to meet at Amsterdam in June 2010, and the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing Act from parliament before that could help Pakistan improve its international ranking.

Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance Senator Ahmed Ali said the committee under his chairmanship approved the bill in great haste with conditions that this bill would be tabled again within one year as the committee wanted to bring certain improvements in it. However, he deplored that their hard work could not bring the desired fruit as the Senate was prorogued without passing such an important bill.

“Despite our hectic work, the Senate did not pass this bill,” he said and concluded that there was still sufficient time available till March 26 and the government should summon the session of upper house on immediate basis in order to pass this bill in the supreme national interest.