On Monday, the National Assembly has approved the “Anti-Money Laundering Bill, 2020” the second amendment despite opposition’s protest. 

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

Babar Awan said that they would not tolerate any interruption over legislation affecting the national interest. He went on to offer the opposition members to sit together and bring more clarity on the authority’s role designated to make arrests under the law.

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PM’s special assistant on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said that the government has also made amendments in the anti-money laundering bill, passed in 2007, to take out Pakistan’s name 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,” said Akbar.

Former Prime Minister and PPP lawmaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on behalf of the opposition parties that they had made a few amendments in the bill especially regarding its section 10.

“We are against the power of arrest in the bill.”

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Pervaiz said that NAB under the law is tasked to deal with anti-money laundering cases. He concluded by saying,

“Even the apex court has termed the NAB’s performance as unsatisfactory.”

It should be mentioned here that PML-N leaders including Former Prime minister Khaqan Abbasi expressed their displeasure with the government, its policies, and behavior.