Pakistan has a quintessential task on its hand to come out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list and evade any possible black listing by the global watchdog. Pakistan is in the FATF’s grey list since June 2018 and a plan of action was given to complete by October 2019, which was extended till June 2020.
To review the progress made thus far, 16th meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on Anti- Money Laundering was held under the chairmanship of Adviser to PM on Finance.
The Director General Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) and the secretary of NEC shared the progress on the FATF Action plan including the update on the face to face meeting with the joint group. Further, the DG FMU briefed the NEC that Pakistan has demonstrated robust progress towards the completion of FATF’s International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) Action plan, despite the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic. The committee was briefed that Pakistan has amended 15 various laws including Anti-terrorism Act, 1997 and Anti Money Laundering Act 2010 for addressing the shortcomings in accordance with FATF and APG recommended actions.
During the meeting, guidelines for improving the capacity of Law Enforcement Agencies in carrying out investigations and prosecution of money laundering related cases were also approved. Additionally, the NEC also approved Rules regarding CDNS and Pakistan Post. However, the said rules will be approved by the Federal Government later on. Further, there was a discussion on the follow up actions based on amendments in the AML Act 2010.
National Executive Committee (NEC)
The NEC is the apex body of Pakistan under AML Act 2010. NEC is mandated to develop, review and oversee the implementation of national strategy to fight ML & TF. The NEC comprises of (a) Minister for Finance or Advisor Chairman to the Prime Minister on Finance, (b) Foreign Affairs Minister, (c) Minister for Law and Justice, (d) Interior Minister, (e) Minister for Economic Affairs Division (f) Governor SBP (g) Chairman SECP (h) Director General, FMU (i) Director General FATF Cell.
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