The operations of the Anti-Benami Zones, established to meet the condition of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), are said to be badly affected due to a lack of facilities.
The Directorate General of the Anti-Benami initiative was established to crack down on white-collar crime with powers to seize luxury vehicles, offshore investments, bank accounts, stocks, and shares.
Sources from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told ProPakistani that little action is being taken against land mafias due to the low number of Anti-Benami Zones. The sources said that offices of the Anti-Benami Zones have not been set up yet, and there is no logistical support either.
Sources in the FBR said that only one investigation officer is posted in the Islamabad Anti-Benami Zone. In the Lahore Zone, only two investigation officers are posted to investigate thousands of kanals of land, the sources added.
Similarly, the Karachi Benami Zone also lacks facilities and the lack of facilities and resources is likely to affect its performance.
The initiative’s role is to counter Benami transactions carried out to evade taxes, hide proceeds of crime, defraud creditors, avoid departmental probes and the scrutiny of regulators, avoid certain political and social risks, and bypass land reforms, among others.
