The government has decided to constitute a federal committee to obtain data from foreign countries to implement its anti-money laundering regime. This is being done to get Pakistan out of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list.
The anti-money laundering committee will be empowered to enter into agreements with any country. Under these agreements, the said countries will have to cooperate in the dimensions of anti-money laundering. The committee will achieve this by signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the countries.
Under these MoUs, countries will be required to provide any kind of support. The support may entail data regarding suspicious transfers, accounts, and assets. The countries will also be liable to provide the required data for overseas Pakistanis as well.
Furthermore, if any overseas Pakistani is found complicit in money laundering, then the signatories will be liable to freeze their assets and also hand them over to Pakistan’s courts so they can be held accountable. Pakistan will also be liable to hand over any culprit responsible for money laundering in a foreign country to the said country if required.
This would be done with the cooperation of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Law, and other relevant departments
